‘Vaccination of comorbid children in 12-17 age group to begin from Oct’
PATNA : Covid-19 vaccination of children with comorbidities in the 12-17 years age group will begin in October, Dr NK Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, said on Sunday.
“We are prioritising children with comorbidities initially between 12 and 17 years to administer the Covid-19 vaccines when we begin their inoculation in October,” said Dr Arora, who was in Patna to deliver the fourth Dr CP Thakur oration at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), an autonomous medical college of the state government on pattern of AIIMS.
He said vaccination of children below 12 years of age was expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. The results of vaccine trials for the younger children are expected by November.
“India has 44 crore population below the age of 18 years of which 12crore are in the 12-17 years age group. This is a huge dimension. So, we will initially target children with co-morbidities even when we begin inoculating those below 12 years of age most likely in the first quarter of 2022. The country will begin vaccinating healthy children once the 94-crore adult population has been vaccinated,” he added.
Dr Arora sounded a note of caution when he said the third wave of the pandemic was possible only if we lower our guards and do not follow Covid appropriate behaviour, especially during the coming festive season.
“The third wave will be driven by a variant. At the moment, we don’t have a variant of concern. However, it is a communitydriven issue. One has to be careful to avoid social and religious gatherings during the coming festive season. The possibility of the next wave will be driven by complacency and lowering of guard by the community on the one side and the administration on the other side. Though 70% of our population is exposed to the
virus, 30% is still unexposed, and we still need to be careful,” he added.
Dr Arora was averse to the idea of closing schools, as he felt it affected the development of children.
He said four vaccines had already been granted emergency use authorisation and five more were in the trial phase.
“India will produce 1.8 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the year-end. Its production will increase to 2.5 to 3 billion doses next year,” Dr Arora added.
With 68 crore doses of the vaccine already administered, Dr Arora said India hoped to give another 100-110 crore doses of vaccine in the next four months.