Highlights:
- Children between the ages of 15 and 18 can enrol for Covid vaccines using their school ID cards.
- Registration for COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 15 to 18 will begin on the CoWIN platform on January 1.
- The Prime Minister also announced “precautionary” or booster dosages for frontline and healthcare workers, as well as those over the age of 60.
According to the government, children between the ages of 15 to 18 can use their school ID cards to enroll for COVID-19 vaccination via the CoWIN app starting January 1.
CoWIN CEO Dr. RS Sharma informed news agency ANI that an additional slot had been allocated on the web portal so students could register for the vaccinations using their ID cards. This is due to the fact that some people may not have Aadhaar or other needed ID cards, he explained.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that teenagers aged 15 to 18 will be able to receive their first dose of Covid vaccinations starting January 3.
PM Narendra Modi, who also announced “precaution” or booster doses for frontline and healthcare personnel, as well as those over the age of 60, indicated that vaccinating children, as other countries have done, will enable schools and students return to normal.
Children in India will be immunised with one of two vaccines: Bharat Biotech’s double-dose Covaxin or Zydus Cadila’s three-dose ZyCoV-D, both of which have been authorized for use in children over the age of 12.
The drug controller has approved Biological E’s Corbevax for trials on children aged 5 and above and Serum Institute’s Novavax for testing on children aged 7 to 11.
Corbevax and Novavax have not yet been authorised for use.
Dr. NK Arora, the chief of India’s immunisation task force, told ANI yesterday that Covaxin produced a very good immunological response in tests on children aged 15 to 18.
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In terms of providing Covid vaccinations for children, India lags behind numerous other countries, including several in Europe, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand.
The decision to begin vaccinating youngsters comes in the wake of an alarming rise of Covid cases in schools.
At least 17 girls from a school in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district tested positive on Saturday.
Earlier this week, 52 kids at a school in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar tested positive, prompting 450 more to be tested with their results awaited.
Last week, a school in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka was shut down after 10 students and a teacher tested positive. Previously, 69 people at the same school, including 59 children, tested positive.
Earlier this month, 18 children at a Mumbai school tested positive for the virus.
However, the move has prompted mixed reactions, with some, especially parents, expressing worry about potential negative consequences on younger recipients.
They have cited increased Covid instances, which have been fueled in part by the (relatively more vaccine-resistant) Omicron strain, to question the need to vaccinate children, who are thought to be a low-risk category.
So far, 141.7 crore vaccination doses have been administered in India, however only 58.1 crore are the second dose.
Over 6,500 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours as of this morning, a 6.5% decrease from yesterday. However, the number of Omicron cases grew by 37%, from 422 on Sunday to 578 this morning.