Covid vaccine trials on children in India to begin soon: Central government

NEW DELHI: The Central government on Thursday announced that Covid-19 vaccine trials on children in the country would begin soon.

Member (Health) in NITI Aayog and the chair of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), Dr Vinod K. Paul, made the announcement on behalf of the government while clearing several myths on India's Covid-19 vaccination programme doing the rounds.

Clarifying one such myth that "Centre is not taking any step to vaccinate children", Paul said: "As of now, no country in the world is giving vaccines to children. Also, WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating children." Paul, however, said that there have been studies about safety of vaccines in children, which have been encouraging.

"Trials in children in India are also going to begin soon. However, vaccinating children should not be decided on the basis of panic in WhatsApp groups and because some politicians want to play politics," Paul said.

Paul further said that the decision in this regard is taken by our scientists after adequate data is available based on trials. He also made it clear that the Centre is allotting enough vaccines to the states in a transparent manner as per agreed guidelines and they are also being informed in advance of the vaccine availability. Paul also announced that Vaccine availability is going to increase in near future and much more supply would be possible.

"In the non-Government of India channel, states are getting 25 per cent of the doses and private hospitals are getting 25 per cent doses. However, the hiccups and issues faced by the people in the administration of these 25 per cent doses by the states leave a lot to be desired. The behaviour of some of our leaders, who in spite of full knowledge of the facts on vaccine supply, appear on TV daily and create panic among the people is very unfortunate. This is not the time to play politics. We need everyone to unite in this fight." (IANS)

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