Vaccination of children likely from next month: Health minister
According to experts, this will be a giant step in breaking the chain of transmission and also reopening schools across the country amid warnings of a possible third wave
Covid vaccines for children are likely in a mater of days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was told on Tuesday at a meeting at parliament.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at the meeting of the BJP’S parliamentary party that the government would likely start vaccinating children next month, according to sources.
According to experts, this will be a giant step in breaking the chain of transmission and also reopening schools across the country amid warnings of a possible third wave of Covid.
Earlier this month, Dr NK Arora, who heads the National Expert Group on Vaccines, had told NDTV that vaccination for children will start by September with the Zydus vaccine for 12 to 18-year-olds.
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s candidate are testing vaccines for children. The results of the Covaxin trials are expected by September, AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria has said.
Dr Guleria had also said vaccinations for children could start by September.
“I think Zydus has already done the trials and they’re waiting for emergency authorisation. The Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin trials should be over by
August or September, and by that time we should get an approval.
“Pfizer vaccine has been already approved by the FDA ( US regulator — Food and Drug Administration). Hopefully, by September, we should start vaccinating children, and that will be a big boost as far as breaking the chain of transmission is concerned,” Dr Guleria told NDTV.
India has given over 44 crore doses of vaccines so far. The government’s plan is to vaccinate all adults by the end of this year.
On Friday, the European medicines watchdog approved the use of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for children aged 12 to 17.
In May, the US had authorised the PfizerBiontech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years old.
A study published earlier this week by The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest medical journals, underlined that “living with 11-17 year olds increases the risk of infection by 18-30 per cent.” Mandaviya’s statement comes at a time when there are concerns over the impact on kids of a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
That a vaccine is yet to be cleared for this age group has only added to worries.
Additionally, Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, on July 1, filed an application for emergency use authorisation ( EUA) with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking permission for its vaccine candidate to be administered to everyone above the age of 12.
Till now, 441,912,395 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) dashboard.
Of these, 6,603,112 doses were given in the last 24 hours, the data shows. The nationwide vaccination drive against the coronavirus pandemic began on Jan.16.
India will meet its target of supplying more than half a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to states by the end of this month, the health ministry said on Tuesday, but added not all doses may be administered by then.
The government told the country’s highest court last month that 516 million doses would be made available by end-july, an important milestone for its goal of inoculating all of India’s estimated adult population of 944 million this year.
Reuters reported on Monday that India would not be able to administer all those shots unless authorities more than tripled daily vaccinations to 14 million doses.
Daily inoculations hit a national record of 9.2 million doses on June 21 but has fallen since.
“The facts are that a total of more than 516 million vaccine doses will indeed be supplied from Jan 2021 to 31st July 2021,” the health ministry said in a statement.
“Vaccines are supplied in various schedules throughout a month. Therefore, availability of 516 million doses till end of a particular month does not mean that every dose supplied till that month is going to be consumed/ administered.”
It said 457 million doses had been dispatched already and 60.3 million more were expected to be sent before the end of this month. India has administered nearly 438 million doses since midJanuary, the most in the world ater China but less than many countries relative to population.