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NEW DELHI : The meeting of National Technical Advisory Group of Immunization (NTAGI) held on Friday remained inconclusive about firming up SoP and detailed guidelines for vaccination of children in 5-12 years of age.
This follows after India’s drug regulator approved Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children aged 6-12 and Biological E.’s Corbevax for those aged 5-11, and Cadila’s ZyCoV-D for children above 12 years.
“National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization’s sub-committee meeting was held today. However, no decision was taken by NTAGI with regards to the vaccination of kids in the age group of 5-12 years in today’s meeting," said a person in the know of the matter.
On Thursday, Dr Mandaviya noted that the Centre will be wait for a nod from NTAGI to give COVID-19 vaccine doses to the children in the age group of 5-12 years.
“India’s fight against covid is now stronger. CDSCO has given restricted emergency use authorization for vaccination of children. Covaxin for children in the age group of 6-12 years, Corbevax for 5-12 years of age, two doses of 2 doses of ‘ZyCoV-D above 12 years of age," Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, minister of health & family welfare tweeted on Tuesday.
Queries sent to the ministry of health’s spokesperson remain unanswered till the press time.
The push for vaccination of children comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Government will run special drive-in schools for vaccination of all eligible kids in the group of 6-12 years.
“Teachers and parents should be aware about this that Government will run special drive-in schools for vaccination of all eligible kids as India will soon start the vaccination of kids. As schools have reopened after 2 years, children and children getting infected in school is a matter of concern to parents. We have to stay alert as some States/UTs are showing uptick of covid cases," said the Prime Minister.
In the fight against covid, India has administered more than 188.65 crore vaccine doses so far under nationwide vaccination drive which started on 16th January last year.
Over 2.82 Crore adolescents in the age group of 12-14 years have been administered with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Similarly, 6,17,694 precaution doses have been administered to the people in the age group of 18-59 years.