DCGI Approves Indigenously Developed Zydus Cadila’s COVID-19 DNA Vaccine For Children, Health Minister Manshukh Mandaviya says, Double Good News For The Nation!

New Delhi: This news has brought great relief for Indian parents. On Friday,  Indian drug regulator The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)  approved Indigenously developed Zydus Cadila’s three-dose COVID-19 DNA vaccine for emergency use in children aged 12 years and above. This has become India’s first vaccine for children. Union Health Minister Manshukh Mandaviya termed it as 'double good news for the country.'

 In a series of tweets, Manshukh Mandaviya wrote,  “Double good news for the nation! CDSCO INDIA INF approves the 1st DNA-based, needle-free COVID19 vaccine in the world - ‘ZyCov-D’ of @lZydus Universe. Making children of India COVID-safe, this vaccine can be used for individuals aged 12 and above.” 

In another tweet he wrote, ‘‘ ‘ZyCov-D’ is the 6th approved #COVID19 vaccine in India, and the 2nd Indigenously developed one. PM @narendraModi ji’s vision of #AatmanirbharBharat and Make in India delivers another significant accomplishment !”

 It is being perceived as a timely move amid warnings of an upcoming third wave in the country, which some experts have warned could be deadlier towards children. As schools in more than 11 states are open after more than a year of closures, worries mount that these could become breeding grounds for the transmission of the Coronavirus. The announcement of Emergency Use Authorisation from DCGI comes weeks after Johnson and Johnson‘s single-dose vaccine was cleared by the Indian regulator. The DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus joined a list of jabs to be available in India after Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna and J&J.

While the Union Health Ministry has refuted that the next wave of the pandemic would prove more serious to the ‘vulnerable and unvaccinated’ population comprising children, it has, at the same time, augmented pediatric services across the nation as a preventive measure.