Dr NK Arora, Chairman, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) said on August 23 that the process for approval of Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin for children will begin by September end or October this year, CNBC-TV18 reported.
The head of the technical advisory group on COVID-19 in India clarified that children and adolescents with co-morbidities will be prioritised once the vaccination process for the age group begins. He said: “Some supply of Zycov-D will be prioritised for co-morbid adolescents. However, vaccinating adults against the novel coronavirus disease will be the top priority.”
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As per the NTGAI chairman, India has an adolescent population (aged 12 to 18 years) of 12 crore now.
Dr Arora added: “Have initiated studies on the need for a booster dose in India and the need for a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will depend on our studies and not based on findings of the United States national health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
The NTAGI chief further said that India will need to depend on domestic vaccine makers for now as issues related to foreign vaccine makers continue.
Speaking about boosting vaccine production, he said: “We are projecting up to 10 crore Covaxin doses per month from September as production at the Bengaluru Covaxin plant is expected to pick up soon.”
However, he added, “Bharat Biotech has not been able to ramp up supply as was expected.”
Besides, BiologicalE has begun stockpiling vaccines before the phase three data, and “this approach is a high risk one”.
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