Covishield, Covaxin work against Covid variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta variants: CentreNew Delhi, June 25: ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bharagava on Friday said that pregnant women can be vaccinated against COVID-19, but more data needs to be available to decide whether children can be inoculated against the disease.
"The health ministry has given guidelines that they (anti-Covid vaccine) can be given to pregnant women. We have also demonstrated from our ICMR PregCovid registry that vaccination is useful in pregnant women and it should be given," Bharagava was quoted as saying by PTI.
Announcing a change in the Centre's vaccination policy, Bhargava said that now pregnant women can be vaccinated against COVID-19 . However, he said that more data needs to be available to decide whether children can be inoculated against the disease.
The doctor said that in terms of administering COVID-19 vaccines to children is still debatable until relevant data is available.
Covishield, Covaxin work against Covid variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta variants: Centre
"There is only one country that is giving vaccines to children at the moment. Whether very small children will ever need vaccines, is still a question. Till such time, we have more data on vaccination of children, we would not be in a position to vaccinate children at large," the ICMR director said.
"However, we have started a study on children between 2 years to 18 years and we will have a result on it by September," he added.
He also said that the second wave of COVID-19 is not yet over, adding that India has 75 districts, which have more than 10 percent prevalence and 92 districts with five-10 percent prevalence. However, he said that 565 districts have less than five percent prevalence, which means that the second wave is over in most parts of India.