The Covid vaccination rollout by the Indian government is progressing steadily for all citizens above the age of 18. However, until now, the government has not revealed the exact timeline in which coronavirus vaccines will be made available for children. Amid looming uncertainties over the vaccination among children, Priya Abraham, director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s National Institute of Virology (Pune) has revealed that an indigenous Covid vaccine for children will be available from September.
Covid vaccination for children from September
"Hopefully, the results (of the trials) are going to be available very soon. The results will be presented to the regulators. So, by September or just after it, we may have Covid-19 vaccines for children," said Priya Abraham, in an interview given to India Science, an OTT channel of the science and technology department, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
There are three Covid vaccines that are currently available in India; ICMR and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Serum Institute of India's Covishield, and the Russian Sputnik V. Covaxin can be administered to children, and if everything goes well, authorities may give a positive nod to Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D for usage among children. According to the latest updates, Zydus Cadila's application for the grant of emergency use authorization is pending before the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI).
AIIMS director shared similar views
The ICMR-NIV director is not the only top expert in the country who has recently talked about Covid vaccines for children. A few weeks back, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria has also talked on similar lines and made it clear that adequate data will be obtained by September.
"The vaccines for children should come out now because trials in India are already there in the vaccines which are available in India, the Bharat Biotech trial is in the final phase by September we will have the data," said Guleria.
As several states are planning to re-open schools, coronavirus vaccination among children will be very crucial. If the authorities succeed in vaccinating children by the end of this year or by next March, students will be able to go back to physical classes after the pandemic hit the nation in March 2020.
