The US drug regulator on Monday granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine - the first to secure such Food and Drug Administration (FDA) validation - prompting President Joe Biden to make a fresh pitch to vaccine sceptics to get the shot to fight the relentless pandemic.

The FDA, which gave the two-dose vaccine emergency-use authorisation in December, provided its full approval for use in people age 16 and older based on updated data from the companies' clinical trials and manufacturing reviews.

Public health officials hope...