Covid-19: Vaccination of children aged 15-18 years to begin from today

COVID19 vaccination drive for beneficiaries in the age bracket of 1518 years is scheduled to begin from Monday across the countryAs announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 2021 the vaccination for the agegroup 1518 years is scheduled to begin from January 3 2022 while administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10 2022In the context of the vaccination of the age group 1518 years Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had informed the States Union Territories that only Covaxin is to be administered in this population category and additional doses of Covaxin will be sent to all States and UTsPotential beneficiaries began registering themselves on the CoWIN portal from January 1 2022 or they can also avail of a walkin registration when vaccination commences from today Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category the official release by the Health Ministry saidAll established protocols regarding vaccination are to be followed for the 1518 years age group beneficiaries are to wait for halfanhour when they will be monitored for the adverse event following immunization AEFI and will be eligible for the second dose only after 28 daysStates were informed that they have the option to designate some COVID Vaccination Centres CVCs as dedicated CVC for the 1518 age group exclusively which can also be reflected on CoWIN Dedicated CVCs would ensure that there is no confusion in administering the vaccinesThe States were requested to ensure separate queues for the 1518 age group and separate vaccination teams States were advised to form two separate vaccination teams at the same CVC one for 1518 age groups and the other for all adults to avoid confusion in the administration of the right vaccinesWith regards to the administration of the precautionary dose the Union Health Secretary highlighted that nine months 39 weeks must have elapsed since the administration of the second dose to make the beneficiary eligibleDrawing attention to misinformation being propagated through various media regarding the requirement of a doctors certificate to establish comorbidity at the CVC he categorically emphasized that the Union Government has not issued any directions on the said matter and prescriptionscertificates are not mandated to be produced at the CVC for the administration of the precaution dose He also informed that CoWIN will send reminder messages to all those eligible for Precaution dose and Precaution dose will be reflected in the digital vaccination certificatesStatesUTs were further advised to ensure the orientation of vaccinators and vaccination team members for vaccination of 1518 years agegroup and the identification of dedicated session sites for vaccination of 1518 years agegroup States were exhorted to undertake proper planning in advance for the distribution of Covaxin to identified session sitesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever