Preparations for COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 15-18 yrs to begin tomorrow

New Delhi [India]: Preparations are in full swing to set up centres at Delhi's Tilak Nagar for COVID-19 vaccination of children falling in the age group of 15-18 years which is scheduled to commence from January 3. For such beneficiaries, the vaccination option will be "Covaxin" only.

The registrations for vaccinating 15-18-year-old children against COVID-19 started on January 1 and over 3.5 lakh beneficiaries of the 15-18 age group have registered themselves on the CoWIN portal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as on Sunday morning. The vaccine option for those in the 15-18 age group would only be Covaxin, according to the "Guidelines for Covid-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to HCWs, FLWs and 60+ population with comorbidities" issued by the Union health ministry.
As per the data on the CoWin dashboard, 3,57,984 beneficiaries of the 15-18 age group had registered on the portal by 9:30 am.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Sameer, the vaccination centre in-charge said the preparations have been done to begin vaccination of children between 15-18 years of age against COVID-19 from tomorrow.

"We have made kids friendly centre. There are many arrangements for them such as books and musical items. There will also be given return gift after their COVAXIN vaccination," Dr said.

"There is an excitement in both parents and children, they are visiting the centre to enquire. This time, the registration can be walk-in or done online," he said.

Dr Sameer further told ANI that "Our slot for January 3 and 4 is full. The pricing of the vaccines is the same as for adults. "

Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said that the national capital has the capacity to vaccinate 3 lakh children falling in the age group of 15 to 18 years every day.

Satyendra Jain said, "We are fully prepared. The Delhi government has prepared about 1,000 centres and we have the capacity to administer 3 lakh vaccines every day. Right now about one and a half lakh doses of vaccine are being administered every day and if needed, we can increase it. No matter how many children are there, we have preparations to vaccinate everyone in seven to 10 days. The government has also trained health workers for the vaccination of children."

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement, the country is preparing to begin the COVID-19 vaccination drive for 15-18-year-old children from Monday.

PM Modi on December 25, 2021, had announced that the vaccination for the age-group 15-18 years is scheduled to begin from Monday while administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10, 2022.

In the context of the vaccination of the age group 15-18 years, the Union Health Secretary informed the States and UTs that only 'Covaxin' is to be administered in this population category and additional doses of 'Covaxin' will be sent to all states and UTs.

Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category.(ANI)