COVID Panel Meet Inconclusive, No Decision on Booster Shots, Child Immunisation

The NTAGI has been working on a policy for additional vaccine doses as well as vaccination among children.

No final recommendation was made to the Union health ministry after the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) met on Monday, 6 December.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

No final recommendation was made to the Union health ministry after the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) met on Monday, 6 December, news agency ANI reported, quoting official sources.

The meeting was scheduled to decide on the requirement of additional doses of vaccines to the immunocompromised and take up the issue of child immunisation.

This comes at a time when over 21 cases of Omicron, the new variant of COVID-19, have been detected in the country over the last couple of days.

According to people familiar with the matter, the additional vaccine doses process is likely to be implemented in phases, with those at high-risk receiving priority.

The NTAGI, which advises the Union government on immunisation, including COVID-19 vaccination, "has been working on a comprehensive policy for both additional vaccine doses and vaccination among those less than 18 years of age," reported Hindustan Times.

"This may be called an additional dose, which is being considered for immuno-compromised people to provide additional protection as they are at a higher risk. It's different from a booster dose that is given after the immunity wanes," a government expert told Hindustan Times.

The government has said that its priority remains to vaccinate the eligible population as fast as possible and that booster dose was not its focus currently.

"The policy will deal with who will require the vaccine, when and how. This needs to be seen in the context that a new variant is coming and with time only we will get to know more information about it. Therefore relevance and effectiveness of the current vaccines will also become apparent with time only," NK Arora, the chairperson of India's COVID-19 task force, had said earlier, according to ANI.

On Child Immunisation

The NTAGI was also supposed to take up the matter of vaccinating children against COVID-19.

If a consensus were to be reached on starting vaccination in children, the same is likely to be conducted in a phased manner, people in the know of the matter had said prior to the meeting.

Government experts were working on a list of comorbidities that could determine which children are first eligible for the vaccine, Hindustan Times reported.

On 29 November, Arora said a "comprehensive plan for immunizing 44 crore children" would soon be made public. He had said that children with comorbidities would be prioritised and vaccinated first, followed by healthy children.

Zydus Healthcare’s ZyCoV-D, the COVID-19 vaccine that was tested in children aged 12 years and above, is the only vaccine that has been approved for emergency use in India.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has maintained on several occasions that the decision to vaccinate children would not be taken in a hurry.

"The experts have to be fully convinced on the issue, as it is a matter of children," Mandaviya said at a recent media briefing. "The decision of the experts will be final on this."

(With inputs from Hindustan Times.)