The Covid-19 vaccine trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children are currently underway and its results are expected by September, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr. Randeep Guleria said.
In an interview with ANI on Friday, Dr. Guleria said that the vaccines for kids will be out now because trials are already are available in India, Covaxin trial is in the final phase by September, we will have the data.
On Monday, the reports say that the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company will administer its homegrown Covid-19 dose to children between 2-6 years of age as part of its vaccination trials for kids.
With the fear of a probable third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination trials on children have been started in the country. Besides Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila is also testing its Covid-19 shot for kids.
Vaccinantion trials for children are conducted by dividing them into different groups based on their age, including 175 participants from every age group. After each participant has been jabbed with a second dose, an interim report is likely to be out by the end of August. Based on this interim trial report, a decision will be taken if the Anti-covid vaccine is safe to be used on kids.
Covaxin, including Ahmedabad-base Zydus Cadila’s three-dose shot, ZyCov-D, are the two indigenous vaccine shots that experts believe will be cleared for kids in the near future.
On July 1, Zydus Cadila applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) of its vaccine candidates for those aged 12 years and above.
However, government officials, have said that “more data” is required before Covid-19 vaccine can be made available for kids.