Noting that vaccinating children against COVID is not a criteria for reopening of schools, Centre on Thursday said no scientific body, epidemiological evidence suggests it as a condition. 

Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog, while addressing a press conference regarding the COVID-19 situation in the country said, vaccinating children is not a condition for reopening schools. This criterion is not acceptable anywhere in the world.

However, vaccination of teachers, school employees and parents is desirable, he said.

Officials also said India is still going through the second wave of coronavirus infections and it is not over yet.

They said 35 districts in the country are still reporting a weekly Covid positivity rate of over 10% while in 30 districts it is between five to 10%.

Providing data about the number of COVID-19 cases reported from different parts of the country, officials said 68.59% of the total infection reported in the country last week was from Kerala.

Speaking on the topic of vaccination, it said, “58% of India's adult population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 18% got both the shots as the total number of jabs administered in the country crossed 72 crore."

About the vaccination drive, the government said in Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Himachal Pradesh all people above 18 years got at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

(With inputs from agencies)