India has given over 42 crore doses of vaccines so far. Indian government aims to vaccinate all adult population by the end of this year.
Dr Guleria said in an interview that to break the chain of transmission of Covid-19, it is important to vaccinate children.
"I think Zydus has already done the trials and they're waiting for the emergency authorisation. The Bharat Biotech's Covaxin trials should be over by August or September, and by that time we should get an approval. Pfizer vaccine has been already approved by the FDA (US regulator - Food and Drug Administration). Hopefully, by September, we should start vaccinating children, and that will be a big boost as far as breaking the chain of transmission is concerned," Dr Guleria said.
He said further, “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.”
"We need to get our own vaccines too - that's why both Bharat Biotech and Zydus are important. Getting the Pfizer vaccine will also be helpful, as there is enough data to suggest its safe... but we can't be sure if we will get required numbers. We will hopefully have more than one vaccine for children by September," he added further.
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Earlier this month, Dr NK Arora, who heads the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration, had told in an interview that vaccination for children will start by September with the Zydus vaccine for 12 to 18-year-olds.
In India, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Zydus Cadila's candidate are in the trial phase. The country is currently vaccinating its adult population.