New Delhi, April 21: The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has recommended restricted emergency use of Biological E's Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11, said sources on Thursday.

After the recommendations by SEC, now DCGI will be giving approval for emergency use authorisation. Speaking to ANI, Dr Anjali Saxena, Senior Paediatrician at Rainbow Group of Hospitals said, "This step will be useful in many ways. Children are a susceptible population since they are the ones who haven't received any dose of COVID-19 vaccine and we are seeing children being diagnosed as having COVID illness these days."

Dr Saxena said that children need to get back to school routines so we need to protect them as well from COVID illness. "Since schools has resumed we are seeing an increasing number of COVID positive cases in children. We are seeing symptoms of high fever, sore throat, diarrhoea and weakness in many of these children," she added.

Emphasizing the importance to vaccinate children, she said that if children are not vaccinated they can become spreaders of COVID infection to adults and the elderly. "This vaccine is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine. The spike protein material of the virus is cloned and prepared in the lab to form the vaccine. When injected it stimulates the immune system to prepare and thus respond effectively when an infection occurs," she added. Govt Panel Recommends EUA for Biological E's Corbevax for 5 to 11 Years.

Dr Saxena said that the Corbevax vaccine has been found to have high levels of effectiveness as it uses a process that has already been tried and tested with another vaccine also given to children. The Corbevax is currently being administered to children in the age group of 12-14.

COVID-19 vaccinations for minors in India was started from January 3 onwards with those in the 15-18 age group for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. The drive later expanded on March 16 to include children aged above 12 for Corbevax. Overall India is currently administering two COVID-19 vaccines for children above 12.

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