From Delhi to Maharashtra, How States Gearing Up To Vaccinate Kids Above 15 From Jan 3 | Details Here

Both walk-in and online registrations through CoWIN facilities will be made available for the eligible teenagers.

New Delhi: With the next phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive set to start from January 3, state governments across the country are gearing up inoculate the young adults between the age group of 15 to 18 years. Centre has asked the state governments to provide training to the vaccination staff and officers who will be inoculating the teenagers and set up dedicated vaccination centers for them. At places where separate vaccination centers can not be set up, state are asked to appoint separate vaccination teams and queues for children.

Both walk-in and online registrations through CoWIN facilities will be made available for the eligible teenagers. Registration on CoWIN portal will begin from January 1 and on-site registrations will start from January 3. For now, only Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin would be used for vaccination teenagers across country.

Here’s how some states are gearing up for next leg of vaccination drive:

Odisha

Odisha government has started preparations to vaccinate over 25 lakh children in the state under the age group against COVID-19. As per Director of Family Welfare and state vaccination in-charge Dr Bijay Panigrahi, the registration for 25.53 lakh children will soon begin on the COWIN portal, and camps will be held in schools and colleges for the vaccination drive.

“We are yet to receive the guidelines on the type of vaccine and number of doses to be administered to them. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted emergency use authorisation to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV–D for children above 12 years,” he said, adding that state government is well prepared for the vaccination exercise, but await the official guidelines to take a decision on how to go about it.

Kerala

Kerala has also started preparation to inoculate about 15 lakh teenagers in the target group. State Health Minister Veena George has said that Kerala is fully prepared to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to teenagers in the 15-18 age group and arrangements would be made to vaccinate teenagers after assessing their health status. The Minister said efforts would be made to complete the vaccination for children at the earliest, in view of the emerging threat posed by the Omicron variant of coronavirus

Delhi

Delhi is likely to set up the vaccination drive for teenagers in the 15-18 age group at existing centres, as per India Today report. It said that government schools and hospitals and private hospitals will provide the facility to inoculate an estimated 7-9 lakh teenagers residing in the national capital.

Karnataka

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai recently said the state government is preparing to vaccinate those between the age group of 15 and 18 years and  special drives will be organised in schools as part of the vaccination programme.

“We are preparing to inoculate 15 and 18 years olds from January 3 by organising vaccination drives at schools. Primary Health Care (PHCs) asked to be prepared for administering ‘precautionary dose’ to those above 60 years of age with co-morbidities from Jan 10, 2022,” Bommai  said.

Maharashtra 

In Maharashtra also, vaccination for teenagers is likely to take place at the existing inoculation centres. Maharashtra is awaiting the final figure of those eligible for vaccination in children aged between 15 -18 years. After getting data, the health department will check the stock of available vaccines and decide if they want to demand vaccine doses from the Centre.

West Bengal

The West Bengal government is gearing up to inoculate around 50 lakh eligible children in the age group of 15-18 years.  “Our data on children eligible for the vaccine and adults for the third dose is ready,” said state family welfare officer Ashim Das Malakar, who is in charge of the overall vaccination programme in Bengal, according to Times of India report. “Vaccine supply should no more be an issue and we have sufficient infrastructure. Our preliminary preparation is also on. We only need the detailed guidelines from the Centre to finalise the rollout,” he added.

Tamil Nadu 

The Tamil Nadu state health department has also started its preparation for vaccinating teenagers. As per state health minister Ma Subramanian the state has identified 33.20 lakh eligible beneficiaries for the drive. He also said that vaccination will be done for children at their schools, along with that special camps will also be conducted by the state for this.

Assam

Assam government has identified an estimate population of 18.25 lakh teenagers eligible for the next leg of vaccination. Dr Lakshmanan S, Mission Director National Health Mission (NHM) in Assam, told India Today that, “discussions with various departments, districts administration are going on. Where the vaccine doses will be given to teenagers is yet to be decided, but discussions are on.” He added that the state now has sufficient stock of Covid-19 vaccines and the state will follow the directives given by the Centre.

Amid the looming Omicron threat, the Union Health Ministry on Monday issued guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 age group and precaution dose to healthcare and frontline workers, and to those aged 60 years and above with comorbidities

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that vaccination against COVID-19 for children between 15-18 years will start from January 3, while “precaution dose” for healthcare and frontline workers would be administered from January 10, decisions that come amid rising Covid cases linked to the Omicron variant of the virus.