Covid Vaccination For Children Likely To Begin From August: Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya

Mandaviya also said that India is well on track to become one of the largest vaccine-producing nations as more companies are in line to get production licenses.

(Representative Image/Getty)

New Delhi: In yet another boost to the country's vaccination drive, the government is most likely to start inoculating children against Covid-19 from August, news agency ANI quoted Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya as saying during a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday.

During the meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mandaviya also said that India is well on track to become one of the largest vaccine-producing nations as more companies are in line to get production licenses.

Health Minister's statement comes a week after the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria said that trials of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin on children were underway and data for the same is expected to come by September. 

Covaxin trials are currently underway on children aged 2-6 years in Delhi AIIMS.

"In the coming few weeks or by September vaccines should be available for children. We should then start schools in a graded manner as we have been doing for 18-45 years age and that also will give more protection to the kid and more confidence to the public that children are safe," Dr Guleria had said.

As per reports, the trial of Covaxin among children is being conducted in three phases by segregating children into categories according to their age. 

The first trial was started in the age group of 12-18 years followed by the age group of 6-12 years and 2-6 years which are currently undergoing trials.

Even pharma giant Zydus Cadila, which is developing country's first DNA-based vaccine, has concluded its trials for the 12-18 age group and Centre has claimed that subject to statutory provisions, the vaccine may be available in the near future.

Meanwhile, even the US government is planning to soon roll out Covid-19 vaccines for children under 12 and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna to expand their trial size on coronavirus shots to include several thousand school-aged children before seeking authorisation.