Mumbai :Clinical trials of indigenous vaccine Covaxin on children between the age of 12 and 18 years is unlikely to happen in the city, said civic officials.BMC had planned to start clinical trials on teenagers between the age of 12 and 18 years for Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), and had according sent a proposal to the central government in the last week of May 2021. However, the Central government has not given a go-ahead for the same.

Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “We have not got any response from the state or central government directing us to start clinical trials on children from the age group of 12 to 18 years. Hence, we will not conduct any trials for now. We are expecting that maybe at a later stage we might be asked to join the clinical trials.”

The Central government had in mid-May announced that it would start clinical trials of Covaxin on children in the age group of two to 18 years, following which five medical institutions in Kanpur, Patna, Mysuru, Hyderabad and Nagpur had been approved by the ethics committee to conduct the clinical trials.

Meanwhile, on Monday 69,626 citizens were vaccinated in the city. So far, a total of 5,723,972 citizens have been vaccinated in the city since January 16. On Tuesday, owing to shortage of doses, vaccination will be conducted only for three hours between 2pm and 5pm at civic and state-run government centres.