A Covid working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), the government’s vaccine advisory body, has recommended the use of Serum Institue of India’s (SII) Covovax vaccine for those aged 12 years and above, the Times of India reported. Director (Government and Regulatory Affairs) at SII Prakash Kumar Singh recently had written to the health ministry urging it to include Covovax in the national COVID-19 vaccination drive for 12 years and above.
Based on the working group’s recommendation, the NTAGI may submit its final recommendation to the health ministry soon. “The working group has now recommended to the standing technical sub-committee of the NTAGI that Covovax be included in the national vaccination programme for those aged 12 years and above,” Times of India quoted sources as saying.
The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16, 2021 with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2, 2021.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1, 2021 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.
India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1 last year. The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from May 1 last year.
The next phase of vaccination commenced from January 3 for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years. India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10.
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