Availability of Kovid vaccine for children will pave way for reopening of schools: AIIMS chief India News – Times of India

New Delhi: AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria has said that providing the COVID-19 vaccine to children will be a milestone achievement and will pave the way for the reopening of schools and resumption of outdoor activities for them.
The data for Phase II and III trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for the age group of 2 to 18 years is expected by September, he said. He said the vaccine could be available for children in India around that time after approval from the drug regulator.
Guleria told PTI on Saturday, ‘If the Pfizer vaccine is approved before this, then it could be an option for children too.
According to a senior government official, pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila may also soon apply to the Drugs Controller General of India for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, which it claims is effective for both adults and children. can be given to.
“So, if the Zydus vaccine gets approved, it will be another option,” Guleria said.
He stressed that although children mostly have mild infections of COVID-19 and some are asymptomatic, they can be carriers of the infection.
Underlining that there has been a huge loss in studies in the last one-and-a-half years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the AIIMS chief said, “Schools have to be reopened and vaccination can play an important role in this.”
He said that the way to avoid the epidemic is vaccination.
The government recently cautioned that even though COVID-19 has not affected children much so far, it could escalate if the virus changes its behavior or epidemiological dynamics. It said that preparations are being made to deal with any such situation.
A National Expert Group has been constituted to review the COVID-19 infection in children and to strengthen the country’s preparedness to tackle the pandemic in a new way.
On the issue of immunization of children, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health) of NITI Aayog recently said, “The child group is no small. I estimate that if it is between 12 and 18 years, it itself is around 13. 14 crore. Population for which we will need about 25-26 crore doses.”
He further informed that not only Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s vaccine is also being tested on children.
“So when Zydus comes out to license soon, we probably have enough data to see if the vaccine can be given to children,” Paul said.