The Serum Institute of India on Tuesday said that vaccines for children aged 3 years or above will be launched within the next 6 months. The announcement comes amid increasing concerns for the new Omicron variant on Covid 19. SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla made the announcement at CII Partnership Summit.
Speaking about the Omicron variant, Poonawalla said, "On the back of enough data, it is safe to say that booster vaccine doses are a proven strategy to get antibodies up to a great extent".
Currently, Covishield and other COVID -19 vaccines are approved for people above the age of 18 years.
"We have not seen a lot of severe disease in children. Fortunately, the panic is not there for children. However, we will be launching a vaccine in six months for children, hopefully down to the age of three," Poonawalla said.
Already, there are two companies in India who are licensed and their vaccines will be available soon, he added.
"I think, yes you should take and get your children vaccinated there is no harm, these vaccines have been proven to be safe and efficacious and all of that. If you feel you want to get your children vaccinated by all means, wait for government announcements on that, and you go ahead with that.
Our vaccine Covovax will be launched for children in six months," Poonawall stated.
The current vaccine production capacity of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is approximately 250-275 million doses per month.
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