‘Kids won’t be vaccinated now’

Health workers walk along an alley, during a door-to-door vaccination drive, in Chennai on Oct 18. Pic/AFP

Zydus Cadila's Covid-19 vaccine ZyCov-D, which has been cleared by India's drug regulator for those aged 12 years and above, will only be administered to adults as of now under the government's national anti-Coronavirus vaccination programme, official sources said on Sunday.

The health ministry has given a go-ahead to initiate the preparatory work for the inclusion of the indigenously-developed, needle-free vaccine and it can be introduced in the programme anytime soon. It has already placed a purchase order with the Ahmedabad-based firm for 1 crore doses of the vaccine.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said the government does not want to make haste about administering Covid-19 vaccines to children and any decision in this regard will be taken based on expert opinion. He said children are not being inoculated on a large scale anywhere in the world, though it has been initiated in some countries in a limited manner. At present, every citizen aged above 18 years is eligible for Covid vaccination.

Meanwhile, the ministry on Sunday morning added 11,271 new Covid-19 cases and 285 deaths in its official tally.

3,44,37,307
Total no. of Coronavirus cases in India so far

4,63,530
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far

1,35,918
Total no. of active cases in India

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