After an active decline in the number of cases in the country, India recorded the lowest case in 74 days, 70,421 new Covid-19 cases were recorded. Vaccines for Children and Babies This took the country’s infection tally to 2,95,10,410, while the count of active cases fell below 10 lakh after over two months, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The Covid-19 death toll in the country climbed to 3,74,305 with 3,921 fatalities recorded in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Delhi, Haryana and Tamil Nadu permitted more activities from Monday as the easing of restrictions by states gained momentum following a decline in active cases. Karnataka will also begin unlock process, barring in 11 districts, from Monday, with the opening of parks and industrial units with riders, besides other relaxations. Maharashtra has recorded the highest backlog of 8,622 deaths while Bihar accounted for 3,951 during June 7-13. Backlog deaths are fatalities from the past days that remained unreported due to delays by hospitals or other reasons. Goa on Sunday extended Covid-19 curfew till June 21 as the positivity rate in the state stood at 14 per cent, an official said.
The Central government on last Thursday announced that Covid-19 vaccine trials on children in the country would begin soon. Vaccines for Children and Babies
Member (Health) in NITI Aayog and the chair of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), Dr. Vinod K. Paul, made the announcement on behalf of the government while clearing several myths on India’s Covid-19 vaccination programme doing the rounds.
Clarifying one such myth that “Centre is not taking any step to vaccinate children”, Paul said: “As of now, no country in the world is giving vaccines to children. Also, WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating children.” Paul, however, said that there have been studies about safety of vaccines in children, which have been encouraging.
“Trials in children in India are also going to begin soon. However, vaccinating children should not be decided on the basis of panic in WhatsApp groups and because some politicians want to play politics,” Paul said.
Paul also announced that Vaccine availability is going to increase in near future and much more supply would be possible.
“In the non-Government of India channel, states are getting 25 per cent of the doses and private hospitals are getting 25 per cent doses. However, the hiccups and issues faced by the people in the administration of these 25 per cent doses by the states leave a lot to be desired. The behaviour of some of our leaders, who in spite of full knowledge of the facts on vaccine supply, appear on TV daily and create panic among the people is very unfortunate. This is not the time to play politics. We need everyone to unite in this fight.”
The Government is also ensuring in partnership with Russia that Sputnik will be manufactured by six companies coordinated by Dr Reddy’s. The Union Government is supporting efforts of Zydus Cadila, BioE as well Gennova for their respective indigenous vaccines through liberal funding under Covid Suraksha scheme as also the technical support at national laboratories.
Going by the 80 per cent coverage strategy, the government would have to plan for enough vaccines to cover 104 million children to effectively protect this cohort. The exercise would, therefore, require at least 208 million doses of a two-dose vaccine. Vaccines for Children and Babies In the case of a three-dose vaccine, the requirement for vaccines would be much higher.
