- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian health ministry on Monday (27) said Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will be the only vaccine that will be administered to eligible recipients in the age group of 15-18 years. The vaccination drive for the teen-age category is set to start on January 3.
The ministry also said that healthcare workers, frontline workers and individuals aged above 60 can get their third “precautionary dose” 39 weeks after receiving their second dose.
ALSO READ: From January 1, Indians between 15-18 years can register for vaccines
“As a matter of abundant precaution, for those Health Care Workers (HCWs) & Front Line Workers (FLWs) who have received two doses, another dose of Covid-19 vaccine would be provided from January 10, 2022. The prioritisation and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months, i.e. 39 weeks, from the date of administration of second dose,” the ministry said.
India’s frontline workers to receive Covid booster jabs from Jan 10
The decisions to inoculate adolescents and administer a precautionary dose to the vulnerable groups were taken in view of the recent surge of coronavirus infections across the globe, detection of the new Omicron variant of the deadly virus, scientific evidence, global practices “and the inputs/suggestions of ‘Covid-19 Working Group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI)’ as well as of ‘Standing Technical Scientific Committee (STSC)’ of NTAGI”, the ministry said.
Children born in 2007 and earlier shall be eligible to get the vaccine, the health ministry said.
“…Vaccination of children in the age-group of 15-18 years to be started from January 3, 2022. For such beneficiaries, the vaccination option would be ‘Covaxin’ only,” according to the guidelines.
The beneficiaries can register online through a CoWIN account, either a new or an existing one, through a unique mobile number. Minors can also book a vaccination slot using their parents’ existing CoWIN accounts.
Dr R S Sharma, chief executive officer of the National Health Authority (NHA), which has designed the Co-WIN infrastructure, told The Indian Express that booking of slots for children will begin from Saturday (1).
“The students can use the nine documents that are already listed (for adult vaccination). Additionally, they can also use their student identity cards,” he said.
For the precautionary doses, the CoWIN platform will send SMSes to beneficiaries when the dose becomes due.
