New Delhi, India

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, confirmed on Wednesday (May 4) in his tweet that the COVID-19 vaccination Covovax will now be available to everyone above the age of 12 years.

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This confirmation came a day after Poonawalla stated on Twitter that Covovax is now available for children in India. In the country, Covovax (Novavax) will be available for children. This is the only Indian-made vaccine that is also available in Europe, and it boasts a 90 per cent efficacy rate. The CEO even mentioned the vision of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of delivering another vaccine to protect the children. 

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The Indian government last year in December approved use of Covovax for an emergency case.

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Last Monday (May 2), the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) authorised the Covovax COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India for the age group of 12-17 years. 

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However, many Twitter users expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that the Covovax option is not available on the CoWIN app for vaccine recipients for the age group of 18 years and above. 

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Another user tweeted with a screenshot of the app and said, “Check this out, when we select 18 & above option in CoWIN app, automatically Covovax option gets faded i.e disabled while 4 other options are highlighted i.e Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik, ZyCov-D."

(With inputs from agencies)