Covovax for Children: In what comes as a positive news, the Drug Regulator of India (DCGI) has recommended granting emergency use authorisation to Serum Institute's Covovax for children aged 7 to 11 years, official sources were quoted as saying by PTI. The expert committee, in its last meeting in April, had asked for more data after SII's application seeking emergency use of Covovax for the age group of 7 to 11 years.
The Drugs Regulator (DCGI) on December 28 had approved Covovax for limited emergency use in adults and on March 9 it was approved for use in the age group of 12 to 17 years, subject to certain conditions.
The vaccination of children in the age group of 12-14 started on March 16 in India. The nationwide vaccination campaign was launched on January 16 last year, in which health workers were vaccinated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline personnel started from February 2, last year.
Meanwhile, the number of positive cases have increased significantly in India too. In the last 24 hours, the country reported 17,336 new cases of Covid-19. The number of active cases of Covid-19 increased to 88,284. This is the biggest jump in Covid cases in India in last four months.
After the death of 13 more people in the last 24 hours, the total number of deaths in India due to Covid has increased to 5,24,954. A total of 13,029 patients have cured across the country in 24 hours.