Children Above 12 With Comorbidities To Be Prioritized For Covid Vaccination: Govt

New Delhi: On Monday, the government advisory committee, the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI), said that children over 12 years old have been allowed to get emergency Zycov-D vaccines, a COVID-19 vaccine from the Zydus Cadilla group located in Ahmedabad, which is India's first vaccine for children, as well as those 12 or older, to be provided with it. The government advisory committee also stated that children above the age of 12 with comorbidities will be prioritised for vaccination.

The procedure for approval of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin for children will commence by September end or October this year, according to Dr NK Arora, Chairman, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).

According to NTAGI head NK Arora, some quantity of Zydus Cadila's Zycov-D vaccination would be held aside for comorbid adolescents. Adult vaccinations, on the other hand, remain a top focus, he added.

"We are projecting up to 10 cr Covaxin doses per month from September," Arora said, according to the report.

The Department of Biotechnology said on Friday that the indigenously developed Zydus Cadila Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D has obtained permission for Emergency Use Authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India and will be administered to people aged 12 and up.

This is the world's first DNA-based coronavirus vaccine, and when injected, it generates the SARS-CoV-2 virus's spike protein and triggers an immune response, which plays a critical role in disease prevention as well as viral clearance, according to the company.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the government further stated that the "plug-and-play" technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is built may be simply altered to deal with viral changes, such as those that have already occurred.

"Zydus Cadila has received approval for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D today, i.e. 20/08/2021, the world's first and India's indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for Covid-19 to be administered to humans, including children and adults 12 years and above," it said.