No plans yet to vaccinate kids younger than 15, say officials
NEW DELHI: India currently has no plans to vaccinate children younger than 15, a government official said, citing a risk profile that the administration considered before allowing the 15-18 age group to become eligible from next month.
Several countries are inoculating younger children, in some cases as young as five, and there have been stronger calls to expand the universal coronavirus vaccination in light of the threat posed by the highly resistant and transmissible Omicron variant of the Sars-cov-2.
“Our decision is solely based on scientific data that shows that children are not impacted to a great extent by the virus anywhere in the world,” said the official, asking not to be named. “We were initially of the opinion that vaccination should only be allowed for adults, but felt that these young adults (in the 15-18 age group) were going to school or college, or moving around, and so could be carriers of the virus.”
When asked why India’s policy was different from that of the United States or the United Kingdom – both countries are vaccinating children of ages 5 and above – the official said India’s decision was also based on the serological survey conducted in July.
“It showed that 67.6% of the population had exposure, which also had a significant amount of children,” said the official.
At the time, Indian Council of Medical Research chief Balram Bhargava said the survey included children between six and 17 years, and it was found that two-third of the general population above the age of six years had been infected already. “Why should we unnecessarily inflict vaccination on young children,” the official quoted above asked, contending that a purported race to vaccinate everyone could be a marketing gimmick.
“Schools and colleges have also been open for some time now in different parts of the country and we are not seeing any surge of infections there. Neither are we seeing children falling seriously ill,” the official said.
As the Centre and states move to tighten Covid regulations due to the spread of the Omicron variant, the government’s assessment indicates they are hopeful the threat is manageable.
“Out of the 500 cases that have been detected of Omicron in India, half of them are fine and gone home. Forget serious illness, only 13% are symptomatic,” the official said. “If countries like South Africa teach us anything, it is that Omicron spreads rapidly and leads to a very quick increase in daily cases, but the fall is also equally rapid.”
From a high of more than 45,000 cases a day, cases in South Africa fell to less than 15,000 new cases in the past 24 hours, data compiled by the government show. Officials also point out that of the around 186,000 known Omicron cases worldwide, there have been only 32 confirmed deaths.
However, stricter precautions are necessary to put citizens on guard, they said. The government has begun holding a daily assessment of the situation.
“Vaccination of children below 12 years may not be necessary as the number of severe disease is very small. Overall, children between 15-18 years have a slightly higher incidence of severe disease, as compared to below 15. So, at present, the priority is to complete double vaccination of adults, then boosters for the elderly and vulnerable, and eventually target young adults below 18 years,” said Sumit Ray, head of department, Critical Care Medicine, Holy Family Hospital.