India Begins Vaccination Drive For Children In 15-18 Age Group

After much anticipation, India begins vaccination drive for children in the 15-18 age group today. Over seven lakh children in the said age bracket have booked their vaccine slots on the government-run portal CoWin so far. As of now, only Covaxin is available for children in India.

The vaccination program for kids will commence at various hospitals and healthcare centres across the country, whereas the registration process for children began on January 1. Children can also avail walk-in registration at vaccination centres. According to Cowin platform chief Dr RS Sharma, beneficiaries can use their national identity cards, Adhar and even class 10 identity cards for registration.

According to Mint, previously established protocols for vaccination will be followed at centres for children too. Also, the teens will be made to stay back at the centres for 30 minutes after getting their shots in order to observe any adverse effects of immunisation.

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As for adults, children in the said age group will be eligible for a second dose of their vaccine after a duration of 28 days.

In his address to the nation on December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the date on which vaccinations were to begin for children in the age group of 15 to 18 years. He had also shared that healthcare workers across the nation would receive a booster shot, beginning January 10. From the same date, people above the age of 60 with health complications will also be able to get their booster shot.

The ramped-up drive to vaccinate younger people and administer booster doses to senior citizens and healthcare workers comes amidst alarms of an impending and seemingly unavoidable third wave. The last week seen has seen a sharp nationwide rise in cases of COVID-19, possibly fuelled by the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

On Monday, India recorded 33,750 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. As many as 1,700 Omicron cases have been recorded in the country so far, out of which 510 cases have been from the state of Maharashtra and 351 from Delhi. To boost the vaccination drive, India granted emergency-use authorisation to two new vaccines- Corbevax and Covovax last week.