E-Paper
Covid vaccine for children: PGIMER to start Covovax trials next week
PGIMER will start administering the Covovax vaccine to children aged between 2 and 17 from next week, as part of the second and third phases of trials
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) will start administering the Covovax vaccine to children aged between 2 and 17 from next week, as part of the second and third phases of trials, the institute’s authorities said on Wednesday.
Covovax— a vaccine against Covid-19 for children, which has been primarily developed by the US firm Novavax Inc, will be mass produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, mainly for children below the age of 18. Covovax is the third Covid-19 vaccine to be tested on children in India, after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D.
PGIMER is among the 10 institutes conducting the trials, which is aimed at checking the safety and immune response of the vaccine. The institute aims to immunise around 100 children, with two doses of 0.5 ml each, on Day 1 and Day 22 respectively.
However, the PGIMER has received only 20 registrations from the children volunteering for the trials, so far.
Dr Madhu Gupta, professor at community medicine and school of public health and principal investigator of the project, said, “PGIMER has got ethical clearance for conducting the trials. However, now we are waiting to receive vaccine stock from the SII and expecting to start by next week.”
‘Vaccine safe, children can volunteer’
Dr Gupta added, “In the initial stages of the trials, the efficacy of Covovax is said to be over 90% and it is completely safe. However, not many parents have shown interest in registering their children for trials, so far, but keeping in view the zero side effects being reported post inoculation, parents must end hesitancy and allow their children to volunteer.”
While inviting children, the PGIMER authorities said: “Parents of healthy children, who want their kids to participate in the trials, can fill the consent form and send it to the institute through email or text message. The consent form is available at https://forms.gle/rmFo2kJrjwivHaeA8 and can be sent at covovax2021@gmail.com or 7347665382 or 7347665383.”
‘Children should not wait for vaccine to start going for school’
Meanwhile, Dr Suman Singh, director of health services, Chandigarh, said, “The sero-survey conducted by PGIMER and GMCH-32 showed herd immunity in Chandigarh against the virus. Also, low severity of virus infection was recorded among the paediatric population during the surge. The adults are also vaccinated against the virus and thus, children should not wait for the roll out the Covid vaccine to start going to school.”
“Parents must send their children to school as the online classes are already affecting their mental health. Children are safe due to herd immunity and anti-covid vaccines will further help them stay protected”, said Dr Gupta, adding that India may start rolling-out vaccines for children from early next year.
