India gets 3rd Covid vaccine for children

<p>
Indian vaccine manufacturer Biological E. Ltd announced on Monday that  its COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the country for children aged 12 to 18.</p>
<p>
The company's vaccine, called Corbevax, is the third vaccine approved for use in children aged 12 and above in the country after Zydus Cadila's DNA shot ZyCoV-D and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.</p>
<p>
The emergency use approval for restricted use in the 12-18 age group for Corbevax is based on interim results of an ongoing mid- to late-stage clinical study, Biological E. said in an emailed statement.</p>
<p>
Corbevax in late December was given emergency use approval for use in adults, but it has yet to be included in the national immunisation program.</p>
<p>
India has so far only been vaccinating only children aged 15 and above. More than 76 million children between 15 and 17 years have been inoculated mainly using Covaxin.</p>
<p>
A total of 176 crore vaccine doses have been used in the nationwide vaccination drive so far, of which about 84% were Covishield shots produced by the Serum Institute of India at Pune. Most of the remaining are Covaxin doses.</p>