Covid-19 vaccine trials on children in India to begin soon: Govt

The Central government on Thursday announced that Covid19 vaccine trials on children in the country would begin soonMember Health in NITI Aayog and the chair of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid19 NEGVAC Dr Vinod K Paul made the announcement on behalf of the government while clearing several myths on Indias Covid19 vaccination programme doing the roundsClarifying one such myth that Centre is not taking any step to vaccinate children Paul said As of now no country in the world is giving vaccines to children Also WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating childrenPaul however said that there have been studies about safety of vaccines in children which have been encouragingTrials in children in India are also going to begin soon However vaccinating children should not be decided on the basis of panic in WhatsApp groups and because some politicians want to play politics Paul saidPaul further said that the decision in this regard is taken by our scientists after adequate data is available based on trialsHe also made it clear that the Centre is allotting enough vaccines to the states in a transparent manner as per agreed guidelines and they are also being informed in advance of the vaccine availabilityAlso ReadMaha govt announces paediatric task force to prepare for Covid19 third wavePaul also announced that vaccine availability is going to increase in near future and much more supply would be possibleIn the nonGovernment of India channel states are getting 25 per cent of the doses and private hospitals are getting 25 per cent doses However the hiccups and issues faced by the people in the administration of these 25 per cent doses by the states leave a lot to be desired The behaviour of some of our leaders who in spite of full knowledge of the facts on vaccine supply appear on TV daily and create panic among the people is very unfortunate This is not the time to play politics We need everyone to unite in this fightHe also said that three other companies will start production of Covaxin apart from enhancing Bharat Biotechs own plants which have increased from 1 to 4Covaxin production by Bharat Biotech is being increased from under 1 crore per month to 10 crore month by OctoberAdditionally the three PSUs will together aim to produce up to 4 crore doses by DecemberWith constant encouragement of the government Serum Institute is ramping up Covishield production of 65 crore doses per month to 110 crore doses per month Paul saidThe Government is also ensuring in partnership with Russia that Sputnik will be manufactured by six companies coordinated by Dr Reddys The Union Government is supporting efforts of Zydus Cadila BioE as well Gennova for their respective indigenous vaccines through liberal funding under Covid Suraksha scheme as also the technical support at national laboratoriesPaul said that development of Bharat Biotechs single dose intranasal vaccine is proceeding well with Central government funding and it could be a gamechanger for the worldThe estimate of production of over 200 crore doses by our vaccine industry by the end of 2021 is the result of such efforts and unstinted support and partnershipThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever