NITI Aayog's Member, Health, Dr. V.K. Paul announced on Thursday that Children need not be vaccinated for schools to reopen. While responding to a question at a press conference on the actions taken, preparedness and updates on Covid-19., Dr. V.K. Paul  "Nowhere in the world has vaccination of children been set up as a criterion or condition to reopen schools. All we need is to curb the spread of infection which can only be ensured through complete vaccination of parents, teachers and other staff members of the school,"

"However, we need to ensure that classes are taken in an open surrounding with a good ventilation and children, along with the entire teaching and non-teaching staff, strictly adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines." On the number of vaccines being tested for children, he said: "Firstly, this topic is still an evolving scientific and public health discourse. Only a few nations have introduced vaccination for children and there is no WHO recommendation to move ahead in this direction because of low mortality rate and high incidents of asymptomatic infection."

"As of now, we have Zydus (Cadila) vaccine which is already licensed for children. We have details of the stockpile and our scientific bodies are doing research on the ways it could be administered," Paul said, adding that "Covaxin's trial in children is almost on the verge of completion. Once we have the results, it would be readily available to be potentially given to our younger generation. In this way, we will have yet another option." 

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