Govt expert panel recommends emergency use authorisation for Covaxin in 2 to 18 age group

The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has given a recommendation to DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) for the use of BharatBiotech's Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin for 2-18 year olds on Tuesday, as per official sources.

Back in August, India had also granted emergency use approval to ZyCov-D's Covid-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 12 to 18. The vaccine is developed by pharmaceutical firm Zydus Cadila and is the first DNA vaccine to be approved in the world.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 years of age in September and submitted the trial data to the DCGI at the start of October.


The indigenous vaccine, if cleared, will be administered to children between the age-group of 2-18 and will provide a major boost to the country's vaccination programme.

The DCGI will take a final call on the matter

India saw the lowest daily rise in Covid cases on Tuesday since early March as 14,313 fresh infections were logged. A total of 181 Covid-19 related deaths were reported in India in the past 24 hours according to the Union health ministry. The current recovery rate is 98.04%, highest since March 2020