Fact Check / Tweet claiming Covaxin approved for children aged above 12 fake: Govt

New Delhi: The Centre has rubbished the reports claiming that the government has approved Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children above the age of 12. Indigenously-developed Covaxin is among the vaccines approved by India's drug regulator for emergency use and is being administered as part of the nationwide vaccination drive.

"A tweet has claimed that Bharat Biotech's vaccine, Covaxin, has been approved for children above 12 years. #PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such approval has been given by the Government of India. Currently, citizens above the age of 18 are eligible for #COVID19Vaccination," the Press Information Bureau (PIB) tweeted from its fact check handle.

The PIB tweet also posted a screenshot of the news which claimed that the Covaxin has been approved for children.

Covaxin is developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Besides Covaxin, India approved the emergency use authorisation for two other vaccines Covishield and Sputnik V for its inoculation program against Covid-19.

The Centre has liberalised the vaccination drive for phase three and allowed states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers.

Last week, the Union health ministry said in a statement that more than 17 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been so far provided free of cost to states and union territories.

The country had started the Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 with two vaccines - Covaxin and Covishield.

The second phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities against the coronavirus began on March 1. The third phase began on April 1 for all above 45 years of age, while people aging above 18 to 45 became eligible for inoculation in the next phase which commenced on May 1.