In view of the increase in corona cases in the country, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Tuesday (April 26, 2022) allowed the emergency use of Covaccine in children aged 6 to 12 years. Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech has also been instructed by DCGI to submit the safety data of the vaccine.
The company will have to submit an analysis every 15 days for the first two months and every month for five months thereafter. Earlier in December 2021, emergency use of the vaccine was approved in children above 12 years of age.
On April 21, DCGI’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) had asked Bharat Biotech to provide additional data for applying Covaxin to children aged 2-12 years. Meanwhile, emergency use of Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D vaccine has also been approved for children above 12 years of age.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has also made a tweet in this regard. In this he wrote, “India’s fight against COVID has become stronger now. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization has approved the emergency use of Covaxin for the age group of 6-12 years, Corbevax for the age group of 5-12 years and ZyCoV-D for those above the age of 12 years.”
India’s covid vaccination campaign
India’s vaccination campaign against Corona was started from January 16 last year, in which health workers were vaccinated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year. The second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination began on March 1 last year. During this, first people above 60 years of age, then people of 45 years and above were given the vaccine of corona vaccine.
After this, vaccination was started for all people above the age of 45 years from April 1, 2021, and then from May 1, everyone above the age of 18 years started getting the corona vaccine. In addition, vaccination was introduced for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years with effect from January 15, 2022. Simultaneously, vaccination of children in the age group of 12-14 years started from March 16.
Booster doses have also been started in the country from January 10. First of all, people above 60 years of age were given booster doses and from April 10, people above 18 years of age have started getting booster doses. The booster dose will be given to those people who have taken both the doses of corona vaccine and nine months have passed for the second dose.