Children with comorbidities to be prioritised for vaccination in India
(File photo) COVID-19 vaccine
National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI) Chairperson Dr NK Arora has said that once the COVID-19 vaccination drive for children begins in India, priority would be given to children with comorbidities however severe.
In an interview with ANI, Dr Arora said, "We are going to prioritise COVID-19 vaccination for children with severe comorbidities and comorbidities so that we immediately immunise them and rest of the children who are healthy can be immunised subsequently."
Talking about how to prioritise the vaccination for children, Dr Arora said, "We are working on that and we are trying to identify those who are at highest risk of getting the severe disease and the need for hospitalisation. Within the next couple of weeks, the list will be available in the public domain. In addition, we are also making arrangements at different parts of the country so that these children do not have to travel and within their district, the vaccine is made available."
Earlier in August, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved Zydus Cadila's DNA vaccine for emergency use in adults and children aged 12 years and above.
Now, the vaccines are waiting to be introduced in the national vaccination programme.
A WHO-AIIMS joint survey in June found out that seroprevalence was 55.7 per cent in the age group below 18 years and 63.5 per cent in 18 years and above. They also highlighted that there was no statistically significant difference in prevalence between adults and children.
Dr Arora also spoke about the reopening of schools as he said, "Children are vectors. They spread the infection but they themselves do not get infected. So it is important that adults who are surrounding them - be it family members, teachers, non-teaching staff - they need to be immunised and surrounded by a ring of protection."
In addition, he stated, "Our national target is to immunise all adults. We have reached half the landmark. Once adults are immunised we have about 44 crore children below 18 years of age and we are prepared for giving immunisation to children at the same speed."