The United Arab Emirates has approved the use of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 3-17, country’s health ministry announced on Monday. The decision comes after clinical trials and extensive evaluations and is based on the emergency use authorization and local evaluations which are in line with the approved regulations, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority said in a tweet.
The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi recently concluded a study to evaluate the effectiveness of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in children aged 3 to 17 years and examined a sample size of 900 children of different nationalities who met the eligibility requirements. All young volunteers were closely monitored and received care at every step of the process. The study was conducted under full parental control. Children from the Abu Dhabi royal family were among those who took part in the study, UAE’s Khaleej Times reported.
The Gulf Arab state, which has among the world’s highest immunisation rates, was already providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15. The health ministry said on Sunday that 78.95% of the UAE population of roughly 9 million had received one vaccine dose while 70.57% had been fully vaccinated.
Last week, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said that COVID-19 vaccines for children should be available in the country by September.
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“We should then start schools in a graded manner…(vaccines) will give more protection to kids and more confidence to the public that children are safe,” he was quoted as saying news agency ANI.
In India, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s candidate are in the trial phase. The country is currently vaccinating its adult population.
Results of Covaxin trials are expected by September, Guleria told ANI. According to this report, the trials are being conducted by segregating participants into three groups: 12-18 years, 6-11 years, and 2-5 years.
