Covid-19 vaccine for children: NTAGI to meet today amid Omicron scare
The expert panel on will meet today to discuss on issues of child immunisation and additional dose of Covid-19 vaccine to the immunocompromised according to the official sources as reported by news agency ANI.
The meeting will be held in the backdrop of more people being infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
As earlier reported by ANI, NTAGI will be coming up with comprehensive policies for both the additional COVID-19 vaccine dose and child immunisation against COVID-19.
There is a difference between the booster dose and the additional dose. The booster dose is given after a pre-defined period after the primary two doses have been given, while an additional dose is given to those people who have a basic problem with their immune functions.
In case they are not able to develop sufficient immunity to COVID-19, an additional dose is given with an aim to improve immunity levels.
On administration of booster doses, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had recently informed the Lok Sabha that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) were deliberating and considering scientific evidence related to this aspect.
As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.
On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.
Meanwhile, India reported 8895 fresh COVID-19 cases and 2,796 death in the last 24 hours, informed Union Health Ministry on Sunday.
As per the ministry, the spike in deaths was reported as 2,426 reconciled deaths reported by Bihar were adjusted in today's database. Kerala cleared the backlog of 263 deaths hence deaths showing a spike, said the ministry.
The cumulative death toll has now reached 4,73,326. The active caseload of the country stands at 99,155. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases and is currently at 0.29 per cent, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said.
In the last 24 hours, 6,918 recoveries were reported. With this, the total recoveries mounted to 3,40,60,774. Consequently, the recovery rate is at 98.35 per cent.