DCGI approves three COVID-19 vaccines for children | Fusion - WeRIndia

The active cases of COVID-19 have been increasing in India for the past few weeks. The daily positivity rate is 0.55%, while the weekly positivity rate is 0.58%. Around 2,500 new COVID cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

The good news is that the recovery rate is also high at present, which is around 99%.

India’s Vaccination Drive has been going. Almost all adult citizens have been vaccinated with two doses. Some of them even took a precautionary dose also, as suggested by the government.

At the same, the inoculation for children in the age group of 12-14 began in March. This is because schools were reopened.

Vaccination is required to keep children safe from the pandemic. Hence, the vaccination for children began in March with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

Meanwhile, many other vaccine manufacturers also conducted clinical trials on children to test their safety and efficacy.

In this context, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) yesterday said that it gave emergency use authorization to three vaccines to be administered to children. They are Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s Zycov-D, and Biological E Limited’s Corbevax.

Covaxin got EUA for children aged 6-12 years. Last year, the company received EUA for the vaccine to be used in children in the age group of 12-18 years. Now, the DCGI gave a nod for the emergency use of Covaxin to be administered in children of 6-12 years. The regulator asked the company to submit the safety data, including the data on the adverse effects every 15 days, for two months. After that, the company has to submit the data monthly for up to five months.

Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D has been approved for children above 12 years. ZyCov-D, the world’s first DNA-plasmid-based vaccine is a three-dose vaccine. The vaccine is administered intradermally through a needle-free injection system (NFIS).

Biological E Limited’s Corbevax has been approved for children aged5-12 years. It is a Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) Protein sub-unit vaccine.  It is the first indigenously developed vaccine in such a way against COVID-19. It is administered through an intramuscular route with two doses.

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