National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), on Friday 29th April 2022, approved Serum Institute’s anti-COVID-19 vaccine, Covovax, for children in the age group of 12 to 17 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently stressed the need to vaccinate all eligible children at the earliest through special campaigns in schools, calling it a priority for the government.
Times Now reported that the Covovax vaccination course consists of two separate doses of 0.5 ml each. After receiving one dose of the vaccine, the second dose should be administered after 3 weeks. Protection against COVID-19 starts approximately 7 days after the second dose of Covovax ao individuals will be fully protected after 7 days of the second dose. The Covovax vaccine will be given as an intramuscular (IM) injection only, preferably in the deltoid muscle.
On 17th December 2021, the World Health Organisation(WHO) approved the emergency use of Serum Institute of India’s Covovax, a vaccine developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in partnership with the US-based Novavax, for showing excellent safety and efficacy. With this approval, Covovax became the 9th Covid-19 vaccine to be permitted for emergency use, providing a boost to ongoing efforts to vaccinate people in lower-income countries.
Covovax is a subunit of the vaccine developed by Novavax and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It is stable at 2 to 8 °C refrigerated temperatures. The vaccine uses a novel platform and is produced by creating an engineered baculovirus containing a gene for a modified SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
In an interview with news agency ANI earlier this month, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawala said that the Covovax will be used for children. He said, “It has been approved by DCGI and we’re waiting for the Government of India to allow us to put it on the CoWIN app to make it available for everyone.”
When asked about the mix-and-match trials of COVID vaccines where Covovax can be used as a booster, Poonawalla said, “We will do that trial. Covovax, in about two or three months, can also be made available as a booster. But at the moment, it is approved for children of the age of 12 and above.” It should be noted that Covovax is the first Covid vaccine made in India and sold in Europe.
