Corbevax For Children: 5 Things To Know About The Vaccine

The country started its COVID-19 vaccine drive for children aged between 12-14 years on March 16, 2022 and it will be Corbevax for Children. An estimate of five crore children will be administering the third vaccine for COVID-19, Corbevax. Officials have also been appointed to check Aadhar Cards and school ID cards to ensure the eligibility of children who applied to get vaccinated.

Earlier, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan announced that the country is starting the vaccine drive for children aged 12-14 years from March 16, 2022. Corbevax will be available at all vaccination centres free of cost as he mentioned. "Safe children means safe India. I am happy to inform that from March 16 Covid vaccination for children in the age group of 12 to 14 will begin." The Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said. Only Corbevax doses will be given to children in the age bracket of 12-14 years as the vaccine for COVID-19.

An official told PTI that it is a challenge to ensure that children administering the vaccine should not be a day younger than 12 years or a day older than 14. "We are all prepared. Training has been given to the staff by all stakeholder departments, vaccine doses have been received, and the education department has been assisting us in the exercise," the officer quoted. It is also reported that in order to avoid wastage, 20 children should be ideally present at a time so that the vaccine can be administered within hours of opening since a single vial contains 20 doses each.

Corbevax for Children: Here are five things to know about the vaccine:

1. Corbevax is developed by an Indian firm, Biological E. The children aged between 12-14 years will be vaccinated only by this vaccine.
2. Biological E Chief Mahima Datla announced the market price for Corbevax as Rs. 800 without taxes and Rs. 145 for the government.
3. Two doses of Corbevax will be given to the children aged between 12 to 14 years with an interval of 28 days.
4.  Instead of replicating spike proteins, Corbevax injects a volume of these proteins reduced the virus' ability to cause serious damage.
5. "What the mandate is that anybody who is given the vaccine needs to be tracked for adverse side effects. This data has to be submitted by vaccine manufacturers." Dr. Anil Arora, Senior Consultant at Institute of Gastroenterology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said.

Suggested Reading: What Is Corbevax? Vaccine Approved For Emergency Use Authorisation