Children’s Covid Vaccine, Adar Poonawalla, Covovax: No Covishield for Children, Covovax, Ready in 6 months: Adar Poonawalla for NDTV
Government says Covid vaccinations for children expected to start next month (Profile)
New Delhi:
Children in India should be vaccinated against Covovax coronavirus, not Covishield, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla told NDTV on Tuesday afternoon.
“Not Covishield… Covovax will be available in six months. .
“Our approach will be to give the Covovax vaccine to children as early as two years old,” he said, adding that there are “a lot of stockpiles of Covovax” and they will be made available – in India and across world – on receiving regulatory approvals.
Mr. Poonawalla explained: “Covovax, known as Novovax in the US and some European markets, is seeing delays in regulatory approvals worldwide, so there is some confusion. delay (for vaccines released to India’s vaccination drive),” explained Mr. Poonawalla.
“Currently, we don’t want Indians to have a hard time with Covovax because it has not been approved worldwide for tourism purposes. So adults should use Covishield as it is accepted worldwide. “, he added.
Yesterday, Dr NK Arora, Chairman of India’s Covid task force, told NDTV vaccination of children with comorbidities would start around December.
Healthy children could be vaccinated in the first quarter of next year, he added.
“We’re going to take it step-by-step… eventually, I think somewhere in the second half of December, I think we can start vaccinating children first. And as soon as we’re done, we’re done. these things, 10 to 15 Dr. Arora told NDTV.
In August, India’s General Drug Administration approved Zydus Cadila’s three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine for use in children over 12 years of age. The company at the time said it planned to produce 100 million to 120 million doses annually and had begun stockpiling the vaccine.
ZyCoV-D (which has yet to be approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization) was found to be 66.6% effective in a late-stage trial involving more than 28,000 volunteers worldwide.
And in October, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin became the second vaccine approved for use in children (ages two to 18) in India. However, as with ZyCoV-D, safety and efficacy data for children have not been published.
Once cleared, Serum Institute’s Covovax (or Novavax) will be the third vaccine for children in India. So far it has been tested on children aged 7 to 11 years.
Dr NK Arora, when asked why authorities are continuing with ZyCoV-D, or any other vaccine for children without WHO approval, said: “We looked at it. data, no safety concerns” as these are all inactivated vaccines.
Dr Arora said the government is waiting for Zydus Cadila and the Serum Institute to complete the trials and evaluate the data collected – to make sure the vaccine is both safe and effective for children.
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