Washington: US President Joe Biden administration authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years old on Monday. The US Food and Drug Administration previously had granted an emergency use authorization for the jab to individuals aged 16 and older.

US President Joe Biden said this is a promising development in our fight against the Covid – 19 pandemic. But the WHO in Geneva warned the B.1.617 variant spreading in India appears to be more contagious, classifying it as a variant of concern at the global level. The virus is still surging in many countries and the pandemic has killed close to 3.3 million people worldwide since late 2019. Rapid vaccination programs, have allowed a number of wealthy nations to start taking steps towards normality.

New infections have come down since January as more than 114 million people have been fully vaccinated through the country’s ambitious vaccine rollout. But US biotech firm Novavax said Monday it had delayed plans to seek authorization for its Covid – 19 vaccine candidates, a setback for developing countries hoping the injection would soon be available through the Covax program.

            India, suffering from one of the worst outbreaks in the world, reported nearly 370,000 fresh infections and more than 3,700 new deaths on Monday. The devastating wave has overwhelmed India’s healthcare system, and experts have said official figures for cases and fatalities are much lower than the actual numbers.

BioNTech on Monday sought to allay fears around the mutation in India, saying that to date, there is no evidence that the jab needs to be adapted to fight the emerging variants.