Randeep Guleria, AIIMS Director has said that the vaccination is the only solution in coronavirus pandemic as a timeline has been given for the availability of vaccines for children against coronavirus, which till now has not affected them in a big way. Guleria added that children have unable to learn anything as schools have remained closed for the last one and a half years because of the pandemic situation. “School needs to be reopened and vaccination can play an essential role in this,” quoted by the senior doctor to the news agency.

The AIIMS chief added that the availability of COVID-19 vaccination for children will be a huge achievement and makes the way for reopening the schools and resumption of curricular activities for them.

Guleria even added that there are chances of vaccine availability in India around September when data from Phase two and three trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin on the age group of two to 18 years is expected. Dr. Guleria said, “The vaccination will be given to the children after the approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). Before this, if Pfizer vaccination gets approved, this can also be the option for children, Dr. Guleria told PTI.

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It has been cited by the senior government official to the news agency that Zydus Cadila can also apply soon to DGCI for use in an emergency as a COVID-19 vaccine. ZyCoV-D claims that it can be given both to adults and children. So, if this vaccine gets approved, this will be another option.

Dr. VK Paul, a member of NITI Aayog stated this month earlier that along with the Covaxin of Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila will also be tested on children. The child’s population is not a small one. My general guess is if it is between the ages of 12 to 18 years, this itself makes the population of 13 to 14 crores for which we will need about 25-25 crore doses. We cannot have some people getting and others don’t. So, we will have to consider this while strategizing and make a decision on how many doses, of which vaccines are available, Paul added.

Many experts have stated that there are chances of children getting affected by the third wave in corona. A State Bank of India research document also suggested that children could be the next group getting affected in the third wave, which can be as severe as the second one and last for the total duration of 100 days. In the report of five pages, SBI said that the impact of the possible third wave in the pandemic can be minimized by providing vaccination and better health infrastructure.

However, the report stating that children will be more affected in the third wave has been dismissed. The government has said that even if coronavirus has not impacted children so far but if there will be changes in behavior, there are chances of getting affected. The national expert group has been formed to review COVID-19 among children and approach pandemic in an all-new way.