Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccination for children aged between 15-18 years from the first week of January and booster doses for healthcare workers, front line staff, and the elderly from the second week.
“The vaccination for children in the age group of 15-18 years will begin from January 3, 2022. This will help remove the worries of school and college-going children,” the Prime Minister said in an address to the nation.
On the long-awaited announcement on the Covid-19 booster dose, Modi said that a precautionary (he did not use the term booster) dose would be administered to healthcare workers and frontline workers from January 10. They were the first two sections of people who received the Covid-19 shots when India launched its vaccination campaign on January 16, this year.
People above 60 years and having comorbidities would also be given a precautionary shot on the basis of their doctor’s recommendations. This would also start on January 10.
The Prime Minister’s announcement comes nearly a year after New Delhi began the world’s biggest adult vaccination drive under which nearly 90% of India’s 94.47 crore adults received a single dose and more than 61% received two doses.
The second wave of India’s Covid-19 epidemic is currently on a waning phase with 77,000 active cases – the lowest in 579 days – and just about 7200 new cases in the past 24 hours, at least Maharashtra and Delhi appear to be exhibiting the early signs of a new rise in Covid numbers.
Modi’s announcement on vaccination for adolescents came soon after Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech announced that the Drugs Controller General of India approved emergency use of home-grown Covid-19 shot Covaxin for adolescents between 12-18 years.
Developed in partnership with the National Institute of Virology, Pune Covaxin is one of the two Covid-19 vaccines being used by India to inoculate its 95 crore adults against the pandemic.
“Covaxin is formulated uniquely such that the same dosage can be administered to adults and children. It has established a proven record for safety and efficacy in adults for the original variant and subsequent variants,” the company said in a statement.
“We have documented excellent safety and immunogenicity data readouts in children. We look forward to Covaxin providing similar levels of protection for adults and children alike,” it noted.
Earlier Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D became the first Indian Covid vaccine that received regulatory approvals for use in 12-18-year-old children. However, large scale use of the vaccine is yet to start.
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