India may begin vaccination for 12 to 14 year children from March

The inoculation drive for children in age bracket for 12 to 14 age groups may begin from March this year. As per the health ministry report, over 45 per cent of adolescents of 15 to 18 years have received their first dose of vaccines.

According to a source, the decision to inoculate the teens of 12 to 14 age bracket could be taken in the next Covid 19 group of NTAGI meeting which is scheduled to be held in the next month. As India has enough vaccine production capacity, the decision is likely to be taken in the next meeting, the source said. 

The apex drug regular body Drugs Controller General of India has already approved two vaccines – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadilla’s ZyCovD vaccine for the teens of this age bracket against Covid pandemic. Zydus Cadilla’s ZyCovD vaccine is world’s first plasmid-DNA vaccine which has beenapproved for children above 12 years