There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a news briefing, she said that while there seems to be some waning of vaccine immunity over time against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, more research needs to be done to ascertain who needs booster doses.
"There is no evidence right now that healthy children or heavy adolescents need boosters. No evidence at all," she said.
- Reuters.The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to peak much earlier than anticipated and may take a maximum of three more weeks, even though the share of rural districts in new caseloads has increased significantly since December, says a report.
A World Health Organization committee urged Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers on Tuesday to provide it with the data it requires in order to list their shots for emergency use, saying the delays were affecting equitable vaccine access.
An emergency use listing with the UN agency means shots can be shipped to multiple developing nations that rely on WHO guidance for their regulatory decisions. It also allows them to be used by the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme that aims to ramp up vaccinations in poorer countries.
"The Committee recognized the challenges posed by some manufacturers’ delayed submission of vaccine data to WHO," its Emergency Committee said in a statement, urging vaccine producers to supply the data as soon as possible. - Reuters.