According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was informed that COVID 19 vaccines for children are likely in a matter of days, in a meeting of BJP MPs at the Parliament held in this morning.
As per sources cited by NDTV, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya voiced at the meeting that the government would likely start vaccinating children by the next month.
Experts suggests that this will be a giant step taken in breaking the chain of transmission and further a step ahead in reopening of schools across the country amidst the warning of an expected third wave of COVID 19.
Dr. NK Arora who leads the National Expert Group informed to NDTV earlier this month that the vaccination of children will commence by September with the Zydus vaccines for 12-18 years old.
Randeep Guleria who is the AIIMS chief stated that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s candidates are testing vaccines for children. He further notified that the outcome of the Covaxin trials are likely to arrive by September.
Dr. Guleria stated to NDTV, “I think Zydus has already done the trials and they are waiting for emergency authorization. The Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin trials should be over by August or September, and by that time we should get an approval.”
Furthermore, he added that the Pfizer vaccine has been already approved by the FDA (US regulator – Food and Drug Administration). He proposed that the vaccination of children should commence by September, ensuring a big boost as far as breaking the chain of transmission is concerned.
As yet, India has administered more than 44 crore doses of vaccine. The government aims to vaccinate every adults by the end of December.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the European Medicine watchdog approved the use of Moderna’s COVID 19 vaccine in Children between the age group of 12 – 17 years.
In the month of May, US had also authorized the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine for the children between 12 to 15 years of age.
Earlier this week, a study published by ‘The Lancet’ emphasized, “living with the 11-17 years old increases the risk of infection by 18-30 percent.”