Covid vaccine for children may be available by September in India: ICMR-NIV director
- The trials for Zydus Cadila are on and the vaccine can be made available for inoculating children
- Currently, only those who are 18 or above are eligible for vaccination against coronavirus
Children between the age of 2 to 18 may be able to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by September this year, said Priya Abraham, the director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology (Pune).
As per Abrahan, the phase 2-3 clinical trials for the vaccines are currently underway on children.
"Hopefully the results will be available soon and they will be presented to regulators. Probably by September or just after September, we may have a vaccine for children… this is Covaxin," she said in an interview to India Science, an OTT platform of the Department of Science and Technology.
The NIV is a body under the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) under the Ministry of Health.
Last month, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria had said that Bharat Biotech's Covaxin trials for children are presently underway and the results are expected to be released by September
“In the coming few weeks or by September vaccines should be available for children. We should then start schools in a graded manner as we have been doing for 18-45 years age,” said the AIIMS chief.
In addition to this, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya had told BJP MPs that Covid vaccination for children is likely to start soon.
Currently, only those who are 18 or above are eligible for vaccination against coronavirus.
Vaccine candidates for children
On vaccine candidates, Abraham said apart from Zydus Cadila, which will be the first DNA vaccine, another vaccine from Gennova, which is an mRNA vaccine, candidate of Biological E and Novavax, which will be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, are in the pipeline.
In addition to this, Covaxin trial is being conducted in three phases by segregating children into categories according to their age.
Delta variant in India
In response to a question on the Delta-plus variant, Abraha said this variant is less likely to spread than the Delta variant itself.
She said the antibodies produced in the bodies of vaccinated people were checked against this variant and it was found that the efficacy of antibodies was reduced two to three fold.
"Yet, the vaccines are still protective against the variants," she said.
Vaccines may show a little less efficacy, but they are very important to prevent serious forms of disease due to which patients may get hospitalised and even die.
"So, whatever the variant, the vaccine is till now protective against all, including the Delta variant. So, there should not be any hesitancy at all," she said.
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Business NewsNewsIndiaCovid vaccine for children may be available by September in India: ICMR-NIV director
First Published:18 Aug 2021, 10:06 PM IST
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