More than 70 lakh children aged 5-12 in Karnataka will be eligible to get the Covid vaccine that a subject expert committee of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has recommended for the age group.
As per a July 2020 report of the technical group on population projections for states (2011-2036), Karnataka has 70.33 lakh children aged 5-12.
On April 22, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said in Mysuru that the Centre was preparing to launch vaccination for children aged between 5 and 12 years and that an announcement in that regard would be made soon.
If the DCGI approval comes through, these kids will be next in line for Covid vaccination.
Karnataka is also preparing to do a serosurvey of 5,072 unvaccinated kids aged 6-14 to understand their level of antibodies due to past exposure to the virus.
The DCGI’s subject expert committee (SEC) recently recommended Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children aged between 6 and 12. The vaccine is currently being administered to kids aged 15-18 in both private and government-run centres.
The SEC also recommended Biological E’s Corbevax in children aged 5-12 years for restricted emergency use on April 21. The vaccine is currently being administered to children in the 12-14 group only in government centres.
Cadila Healthcare-developed DNA Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D, was approved by the drug regulator for use in children aged 12 and above but is not being used to vaccinate children currently.
As per the state Covid-19 war room report dated April 24, as many as 1,25,187 kids in the age group of 0-9 years have been infected with Covid and 70 of them have died.
The fourth national serosurvey, which was conducted in 70 districts, including three in Karnataka in June-July 2021, included children aged 6-17 years. the Overall seroprevalence in the 6-9 age group was found to be 57.2% and in the 10-17 age group 61.6%.
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(Published 25 April 2022, 19:12 IST)
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