Indian vaccine manufacturer Biological E. Ltd announced on Monday that  its COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the country for children aged 12 to 18.

The company's vaccine, called Corbevax, is the third vaccine approved for use in children aged 12 and above in the country after Zydus Cadila's DNA shot ZyCoV-D and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

The emergency use approval for restricted use in the 12-18 age group for Corbevax is based on interim results of an ongoing mid- to late-stage clinical study, Biological E. said in an emailed statement.

Corbevax in late December was given emergency use approval for use in adults, but it has yet to be included in the national immunisation program.

India has so far only been vaccinating only children aged 15 and above. More than 76 million children between 15 and 17 years have been inoculated mainly using Covaxin.

A total of 176 crore vaccine doses have been used in the nationwide vaccination drive so far, of which about 84% were Covishield shots produced by the Serum Institute of India at Pune. Most of the remaining are Covaxin doses.