India to soon start Phase 2 and 3 trials of Covaxin on children

New Delhi: India will soon start Phase 2 and 3 trials of Covaxin on children from 2 to 15 years of age.

“Recently, subject expert committee of DCGI gave permission for vaccine trials on children from 2 to 15 years of age to Bharat Biotech. We are waiting for DCGI approval. Hopefully, we will soon start phase 2 and phase 3 trials,” Dr Sanjeev Sinha, Department of Medicine, AIIMS.

The Centre has said the current production capacity of Covaxin vaccine will be doubled by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July-Aug 2021. The production is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September 2021, officials said.

Meanwhile, citing the unprecedented rise in Covid cases in the country, the Centre on Wednesday allowed its employees with recognised qualifications to undertake medical practice or teleconsultation.

Such practice is to be undertaken during spare time and on a purely charitable basis, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

Referring to a 57-year-old order of the Home Ministry, it said the DoPT has been receiving queries/requests from Central government servants for providing teleconsultation services during the current pandemic.

There was no let-up in the number of deaths with India setting a new world record as over 4,205 people succumbed to the virus. Ten states account for 73.17 per cent of these deaths.

As per the Union health ministry, 4.79 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group received their first dose of Covid vaccine in the last 24 hours and cumulatively 30.44 lakh have been vaccinated across 30 states/UTs since the start of phase-3 drive. Maharashtra (5.96 lakh) and Delhi (4.21 lakhs) have seen the highest number of vaccinations in the 18-44 age group since May 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a review meeting on the availability and supply of oxygen and medicines.