The national capital received its first kid-friendly vaccination centre. The vaccination center is equipped with toys, electronic and musical items for kids. Talking about the centre, Dr Sameer Bhati, Director Star Imaging and Path Labs said, “Keeping in mind the waiting time post-vaccination, we have created a vaccination centre so that kids can play, we have also kept toys, electronic and musical items for kids so that they are kept engaged and the vaccination process is completed.”
Dr Bhati further said that, “this is the first vaccination centre with the concept of being kid-friendly.”
“We had earlier opened vaccination centres for adults, but this centre which is specifically made for kids will be the first vaccination centre with this concept. If we would need more such vaccination centres which are kid-friendly in future, we will replicate according to the needs.”
He said that the cost of vaccination for kids will be decided by the government.
“The cost of vaccination for kids will be as per the rates decided by the government,” he added.
Meanwhile talking about child vaccine in India, top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang said that so far, only interim data has been submitted for approval to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for all Covid-19 vaccines. In view of this, vaccination in children can wait, she said.
An expert panel of DCGI has recommended granting emergency use authorisation (EUA) to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children aged 2 to 18 with certain conditions.
Bharat Biotech submitted data from phase 2/3 trials of Covaxin for use in children aged 2 to 18 years to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) earlier this month for verification and subsequent approval for EUA for the vaccine.
Gagandeep Kang said vaccine trials in children did not involve kids with co-morbidities, so it is not known how they are going to react to the vaccines.
“We need to wait and try to develop a vaccine for kids that can offer protection against new variants instead of vaccinating them now,” said Gagandeep Kang, adding that children already have had exposure to the Delta variant.
On the other hand talking informing about child vaccine for corona Niti Aayog member (health) and India’s Covid-19 Task Force chief VK Paul said that the Centre will decide the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine for children below 18 on the basis of overall “scientific rationale” and their supply,
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