COVID vaccine administration to children aged between 12 and 14 commenced in India on Wednesday, as around 71.1 million children from this age group are expected to get vaccinated.
Additionally, people above age 60 will be able to take the precautionary dose.
Federal Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted in Hindi: "Taking the COVID vaccination campaign forward, under the '#SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine' (Free vaccine to everyone) campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the COVID vaccination of children in the age group of 12-14 has started from today...". "...All people age 60+ will also be able to get a precautionary dose from today. Let's secure the country together, get the vaccine," it added.
Federal Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya Tweets about COVID Vaccination Starting for Children in 12-14 Year Age Group
© Photo : Twitter/@mansukhmandviya
The minister had made the announcement of administering the vaccine against COVID-19 to children in the 12-14 age group on Monday.
As per the recent guidelines issued by the government, children belonging to the particular age group will be jabbed with Corbevax, made by Hyderabad city-based Biological E. Limited.
Biological E Ltd. has supplied 50 million doses of Corbevax to the federal government and the vaccine has been distributed among the states.
Biological E. had applied for the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine for the 5-12 year age group last week. The data was submitted to the Subject Expert Committee.
Corbevax is India's first locally-developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) Protein sub-unit vaccine against COVID-19. It has received EUA from India's drug regulator for the 12 to 18-year age group.
The vaccine is administered through intramuscular route with two doses scheduled 28 days apart and it is stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius temperature and presented as 0.5 ml (single dose) and 5 ml (10 doses) vial and 10 mL (20 doses) vial pack.