Biological E's Corbevax is being administered to children in the 12-14 age group
The Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 12 to 14 will cost Rs 800 in the market before taxes, sources have said. It will be sold to the government at Rs 145, the lowest in the world.
The country today started administering COVID-19 vaccine to young people aged between 12 and 14.
The children in this age group, estimated by the government to be some five crore, will get the Corbevax vaccine made by the domestic firm Biological E.
"Today is an important day in India's efforts to vaccinate our citizens," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
India reported 2,876 new infections today.
Biological E said it is providing the most affordable COVID-19 vaccine on a global scale due to process innovation, large-scale manufacturing and efficient high-quality operations.
The government yesterday released guidelines for vaccination of children between 12 and 14 years, which, among other key points, said only Corbevax would be used for this age group. Two doses of Corbevax would be administered to children in 12-14 age group at an interval of 28 days, the guidelines said.
An officer at a vaccination centre in Delhi told news agency PTI that the challenge would be to ensure those who are coming in for inoculation are not a day younger than 12 or older than 14.
"We are all prepared. Training has been given to the staff by all stakeholder departments, vaccine doses have been received, and the education department has been assisting us in the exercise," PTI quoted the unnamed officer as saying.
The officials are checking Aadhaar or school identity cards to ensure the children who have applied for vaccination are eligible.
A small issue with the vaccination for this age group is that each vial has 20 doses and in order to avoid wastage, 20 children must be present at a time, so that doses can be administered within hours of opening the vial, a Delhi vaccination officer, Pradeep Kumar, told PTI.