India to start giving home-grown doses to children over 12

NEW DELHI • All Indian children aged 12 and older will become eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations from next month, when local drug-maker Cadila Healthcare launches its ZyCoV-D product, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The world's first DNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D won emergency authorisation from Indian regulators last month.

From next month, the company, better known as Zydus Cadila, will produce 10 million vaccine doses a month.

The vaccine is the only one approved for children in India, which has given a total of 825.9 million doses to adults among its population of nearly 1.4 billion.

Separately, India is likely to allow a smaller gap between AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses for inoculations being carried out privately, in line with a court order, two sources told Reuters.

Private hospitals and clinics will give their paying patients the option to receive their second dose of the vaccine four weeks after the first, down from between 12 and 16 weeks currently, they said.

Earlier this month, the high court in the southern state of Kerala ordered changes in the Health Ministry's vaccine-booking platform to give people paying for vaccination this choice, which is already being offered to those flying abroad.

"Since the high court has given a judgment, it will have to be done," said one of the sources. "For the government's programme, the ideal gap remains 12 weeks."

India doubled the gap between the AstraZeneca vaccine's two doses in May to make sure more people were inoculated with at least one dose when supplies were scarce at the height of the country's outbreak this year.

AstraZeneca recommends that the second dose of its Covid-19 vaccine should be taken four weeks after the first shot, but says on its website there is a "trend of increased efficacy with a longer than four week dosing interval".

The World Health Organisation recommends an interval of eight to 12 weeks.

India's total vaccine output has trebled since May to 300 million doses a month. Less than a quarter of the production is sold by private hospitals, while the rest is provided by the government free of cost.

REUTERS