Amid the pediatric trials of the domestically developed Covaxin being conducted in Kanpur, the youngest girl of 2 years and 8 months, received the jab on Wednesday. Reportedly, 5 kids aged between 2 and 6 were administered vaccine doses as a part of this schedule. As per reports, the Chief Investigator of the trials, Dr. V.N. Tripathi informed that 15 more kids in this age group will be inoculated in the upcoming days.
Volunteers include kids of doctors, businessmen & bank officials
After immunisation, the safety profile of all these children will be checked and analysed. Notably, the pediatric trials of the COVID vaccine are being held at Prakhar Hospital located in Arya Nagar. As per reports, kids across three age categories of 12 to 18 years, 6 to 12 years and 2 to 6 years have been included in the program. After screening 20 kids in the youngest age bracket, 6 of them were selected for the final schedule but later one child was dropped from this.
As of now, 15 volunteers from the 6-12 and 12-18 age groups have been given the first dose of the vaccine. According to reports, all these children were administered a 0.5 ml dosage of the vaccine. Amongst the recipients of the current trial, the youngest girl of 2 years and 8 months is the daughter of a doctor from Kanpur Dehat. Additionally, the Chief Investigator informed that the group of volunteers has kids of bank officials and businessmen too. Reportedly, this schedule will be continued with the inoculation of more young kids.
Complete adherence to safety guidelines being ensured
Ensuring the safety of the children, the trials are being conducted in accordance with the rules laid by the Drug Controller of India and international clinical trials guidelines. First, RT-PCR tests are conducted on all the kids and the process moves ahead only after they test negative. Once the vaccine doses are given, the safety profile of the kids is prepared. Depending on this, the efficacy of the vaccine for developming immunity amongst kids will be inferred.
