70 lakh children in Karnataka aged 5-12 will be eligible for Covid jabs

More than 70 lakh children aged 5-12 in Karnataka will be eligible to get the Covid vaccine that a subject expert committee of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has recommended for the age group.

As per a July 2020 report of the technical group on population projections for states (2011-2036), Karnataka has 70.33 lakh children aged 5-12.

On April 22, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said in Mysuru that the Centre was preparing to launch vaccination for children aged between 5 and 12 years and that an announcement in that regard would be made soon.

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If the DCGI approval comes through, these kids will be next in line for Covid vaccination.

Karnataka is also preparing to do a serosurvey of 5,072 unvaccinated kids aged 6-14 to understand their level of antibodies due to past exposure to the virus.

The DCGI’s subject expert committee (SEC) recently recommended Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children aged between 6 and 12. The vaccine is currently being administered to kids aged 15-18 in both private and government-run centres.

The SEC also recommended Biological E’s Corbevax in children aged 5-12 years for restricted emergency use on April 21. The vaccine is currently being administered to children in the 12-14 group only in government centres.

Cadila Healthcare-developed DNA Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D, was approved by the drug regulator for use in children aged 12 and above but is not being used to vaccinate children currently.

As per the state Covid-19 war room report dated April 24, as many as 1,25,187 kids in the age group of 0-9 years have been infected with Covid and 70 of them have died.

The fourth national serosurvey, which was conducted in 70 districts, including three in Karnataka in June-July 2021, included children aged 6-17 years. the Overall seroprevalence in the 6-9 age group was found to be 57.2% and in the 10-17 age group 61.6%.

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