It has been announced by the Delhi high court on Friday said it would be a “disaster” if Covid-19 vaccines are administered, especially to children, without clinical trials and asked the Centre that it start taking steps to quickly vaccinate children of below 18 years of age once the trials are over as the whole nation is waiting for it.
The Centra informed the court that clinical trials for the vaccines for kids under 18 years are going on and are on the verge of completion and a policy will be designed by the government and children will be vaccinated when permission is granted by the experts.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said, “Let the trials be done, otherwise it would be a disaster if vaccines are administered without trials that too in case of children.”
“Once trials are over, you quickly apply to children. The whole country is waiting,” it added and listed the matter for further hearing on September 6.
On behalf of a minor the HC was hearing a PIL filed which sought directions for the immediate vaccination of those in the 12-17 age group.
The pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila which is developing DNA vaccines has decided its clinical trials for between the age group of 12 to 18 years of age and subject to the statutory permission and the same may be available in near future for children of the age group of 12 to 18 years of age, underlined the additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma, representing the Centre.
The Centre, in the affidavit filed through standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, said vaccination is the top most priority of the government and all efforts are being made to achieve an objective of 100% vaccination in the shortest time possible keeping the available resources in mind and availability of vaccine doses into consideration.