PM Modi announces vaccine for children, 'precaution' dose for health staff, elderly

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that vaccination against COVID-19 for children between 15 and 18 years will start in the country from January 3 while "precaution dose" for healthcare and frontline workers will begin from January 10.

In an address to the nation amid increasing Covid cases through the Omicron variant of the virus, he said the precaution dose will also be available for citizens above 60 years of age and with comorbidities on the advice of their doctor from January 10 next year.

The Prime Minister used the term precaution dose and did not call it a booster dose as it has been generally referred to.

Modi said global experience shows that following all preventive measures at a personal level is a big weapon to fight Covid as he asked people to be alert and take all precautionary measures but cautioned against any panic.

He said vaccination is also an important weapon to combat the pandemic.

A total of 415 cases of Omicron variant of Coronavirus have been detected in India so far, out of which 115 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health ministry's data updated on Saturday.

Maharashtra has recorded a maximum of 108 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi at 79, Gujarat 43, Telangana 38, Kerala 37, Tamil Nadu 34 and Karnataka 31.

India's Covid tally rose to 3,47,79,815 with 7,189 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, while the active cases have declined to 77,032, according to the data updated at 8 am. The death toll climbed to 4,79,520 with 387 more fatalities.

"This is the time to be careful, while engaging in festivities," he said.

Administration of nasal vaccine and world's first DNA vaccine against Covid will soon start in India as well, he said.

He said while the experience of each country has been different in how the new Omicron variant was impacting them, Modi underlined that caution at an individual level has been found to be most effective against preventing the spread of the virus.

"Realising the seriousness of Covid-19, today more than 141 crore doses have been administered in India. More than 90% eligible population has been vaccinated with the first dose… In many countries of the world, the number of infects are increasing due to the new variant of Covid. I appeal to all, not to panic but remain vigilant, and use masks and sanitise hands regularly," he said.

He added: "India has 18 lakh isolation beds, 5 lakh oxygen supported beds, 1.40 lakh ICU beds, 90,000 pediatric ICU & non-ICU beds. We have more than 3,000 working PSA oxygen plants, 4 lakh oxygen cylinders have been distributed throughout the nation."

Earlier in the day, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was cleared for emergency use among kids above the age of 12 years. The nod from the Drug Controller General of India came on Saturday, while the subject expert committee had recommended Covaxin for children of the age group of 12 to 18 years in October.

Covaxin is now the second vaccine cleared for use for children in India. In August, Zydus Cadila's three-dose DNA jab was allowed to be used on adults and children over the age of 12. Covaxin will be administered in children in two doses, with a gap of 28 days between the first and second doses.

The gap and dosage of vaccine for adults and children will be the same according to the trial data submitted to the government.

Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw called the announcement "extremely important" and said it is a huge relief for parents and schools. "There is enough data showing that children are catching Covid… parents are anxious. Giving vaccines to children will be very useful," she said.

Meanwhile, multi-disciplinary Central teams have been deployed in 10 states which are reporting either an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or a slow vaccination pace, according to a Union Health Ministry office memorandum.

As per the document, these 10 states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab.

"In view of rapid surge in cases and deaths because of COVID-19, as reported by various news channels, the state governments, and noted in internal reviews, it has been seen that the number of Omicron cases has emerged in some states.

"It has also been observed that the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in these states is less than the national average. In wake of this situation, a decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary Central teams to 10 identified states some of which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace (list enclosed), to aid the efforts of the state and district administration for management of COVID-19," the memorandum stated.

These teams will be stationed in the states for three to five days, and they will work along with the state health authorities, it said.

The teams will specifically look into areas of contact-tracing, including surveillance and containment operations, and COVID-19 testing, including sending of adequate samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing, the memo stated.