COVID-19: Adar Poonawalla clarifies Covovax vaccine available for everyone above age of 12 years

New Delhi: Chief Executive Officer of Pune based Serum Institute of India Adar Poonawalla on Wednesday clarified that the COVID-19 vaccine Covovax is available for everyone above the age of 12 years.

“A lot of you have asked if Covovax is available for adults. The answer is yes, it is available for everyone above the age of 12,” Poonawalla tweeted. This comes a day after Poonawalla announced on Twitter that Covovax is now available for children in India.

A lot of you have asked if Covovax is available for adults. The answer is yes, it is available for everyone above the age of 12.

— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 4, 2022

Covovax (Novavax), is now available for children in India. This is the only vaccine manufactured in India that is also sold in Europe and has an efficacy of 90 per cent. This is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing yet another vaccine to protect our children,” he said in a tweet.

Covovax (@Novavax), is now available for children in India. This is the only vaccine manufactured in India that is also sold in Europe and has an efficacy of > 90%. This is in line with Shri @narendramodi Ji’s vision of providing yet another vaccine to protect our children. pic.twitter.com/QUm7sZyOfi

— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) May 3, 2022

Last week, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) approved the Serum Institute of India’s Covovax COVID-19 vaccine for the age group 12-17.

Last year in December, the government cleared Covovax for restricted use in an emergency situation.

Meanwhile, many Twitterati complained that the Covovax option is not available on CoWIN app for 18 + vaccine beneficiaries.

“The Cowin doesn’t make Covovax an option if 18 and above tab is selected. Hopefully, that will be looked into,” a user said.

While, another user posted a screenshot of CoWIN app and said, “Check this out, when we select 18 & above option in CoWIN app, automatically Covovax option gets faded i.e disabled while 4 other options are highlighted i.e Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik, ZyCov-D.”