COVID-19: AIIMS Delhi to start screening children for Covaxin trials from today

New Delhi: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi will start screening children for clinical trials of indigenous home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin from Monday (June 7, 2021), sources told news agency ANI.

This development comes the day after AIIMS Patna started pediatric trials, on children aged between 12 and 18 years old, for Covaxin.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) gave nod to Bharat Biotech to conduct clinical trials on children on May 11. To grant the permission of trials, DCGI’s approval was followed by a recommendation on May 12 by a Subject Expert Committee (SEC).

Earlier, Niti Aayog member (Health), VK Paul, had said, “Covaxin has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), for Phase II/III clinical trials in the age group of 2 to 18 years.”

India currently has three COVID-19 vaccines, namely Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute’s Covishield, and Russia’s Sputnik V. 

Covaxin is being indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and is being used in adults in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, India on Sunday saw its lowest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in two months and recorded 1.14 lakh new infections, as per the data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. India's active caseload decreased by 77,449 in the last 24 hours and has now dropped to 14,77,799. 

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