Does Centre propose to introduce COVID-19 nasal vaccine for children across India? See what Health Ministry said

Despite the new variant, the COVID-19 cases in the country have been declining. However, people are concerned about the vaccination of children on the same. In this context, Zee Business reporter Ambarish Pandey reported that Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was asked in the Lok Sabha whether the government proposes to introduce the nasal vaccine for children across the country.

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Pawar responded that no nasal vaccine trial for children is ongoing across the country. However, as of now, the ZyCoV-D vaccine manufactured by M/s Cadilia Healthcare has received approval for restricted use in the emergency settings by the DGCI for the age group 12 and above based on the interim clinical data of phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the country.

Pawar further informed that Bharat Biotech is conducting a phase 2/3 trial of COVAXIN on healthy volunteers aged between 2 and 18 years. The firm has also submitted interim safety and immunogenicity data to the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI).

Furthermore, the Serum Institute of India is also conducting phase 2/3 clinical trial of Nanoparticle vaccine (liquid) COVOVAX in 920 subjects between the age group 2 and 17.

It has to be noted that the approval of the above-mentioned COVID-19 vaccines depends on the successful completion of clinical trials and submission of requisite data as per requirements.

As per the MoHFW, there have been 7,678 recoveries in the last 24 hours increasing the total recoveries to 3,41,05,066. India's active caseload stands at 94,943. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases.

On Friday, As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India recorded 8,503 new cases in the last 24 hours. Omicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, has caught the attention of the government as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed it as a variant of concern.