New Delhi: The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Tuesday approved the Serum Institute’s anti-Covid-19 vaccine Covovax for limited emergency use in children aged seven to 11 years with certain conditions. Official sources gave this information. The DCGI’s approval comes after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID last week recommended allowing emergency use of the Covovax vaccine for the age group of seven to 11 years.
Official sources said that on March 16, Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII), had submitted a request letter to the DCGI in this regard. “The SEC last week deliberated on SII’s application and recommended allowing emergency use for the Covovax vaccine for children aged seven to 11 years,” an official source said.
The expert committee, at its last meeting in April, had asked for more data to be made available after SII’s application seeking emergency use of Covovax for the age group of seven to 11 years. The DCGI approved Covovax for limited use in emergency situations in adults on December 28 and for children aged 12 to 17 years with certain conditions on March 9.
India started immunization of children in the age group of 12-14 on 16 March. The nationwide vaccination campaign was launched on January 16 last year, in which health workers were vaccinated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline personnel started on February 2 last year.
