The Drug Controller General of India on Saturday approved the vaccine Covaxin for emergency use in children above 12 years. This decision could go a long way in ensuring that children return to the physical classroom, start playing contact sports, engaging in extra-curricular activities and don’t stay cooped up in houses all day, glued to TV screens.
Though offline classes have resumed, the attendance leaves much to be desired. The jab for those who are 12+ will further bolster the confidence of parents who are a trifle reluctant to send children to school in view of the rising incidence of Covid cases and the lurking Omicron threat. There is enough data to show that children are increasingly catching Covid; likewise, Omicron has been detected in infants.
The children, in turn, become potent sources of family transmission. The vaccine comes as a big relief to parents. Covaxin is the second vaccine to be cleared for use in children. In August, Zydus Cadila’s three-dose DNA jab was allowed to be administered to adults and children above the age of 12. Covaxin will be administered to children in two doses, with a gap of 28 days between the first and the second. The gap and dosage for adults and children will be the same according to the trial data submitted to the government.
The data on trials among children has not been placed in public domain yet. The rollout will entirely depend upon the government, which has to give orders to Bharat Biotech, the manufacturer; it will also depend upon the policy on child vaccination, which will have to be firmed up, with few global precedents to go by.
A third potential vaccine for kids is Serum Institute's Novavax, for which the DCGI last month cleared trials for children between seven and 11 years. A fourth is Biological E's Corbevax, which has been cleared to conduct advanced trials on children above five. India is thus slowly turning its focus towards vaccinating children, having administered over 100 crore doses to adults.
Bharat Biotech had submitted data from clinical trials in the 2-18 years age group for Covaxin (BBV152) to Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) in October. The data has been thoroughly reviewed by the CDSCO and SEC which have provided their positive recommendations, the vaccine maker said in a statement.
