COVID-19: Vaccination for 15-18 age group to begin from today

Beneficiaries in the age group of 15 to 18 years across the country will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccinations from today. On December 25, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the vaccination for the age-group 15-18 years is scheduled to begin from January 3, 2022, while the administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10, 2022.

In line with the announcement made by the prime minister, 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 UTs.

The registration for all potential beneficiaries on the Co-WIN portal had begun on January 1, 2022. They can also avail of walk-in registration at the vaccination centers from today. 

Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category, an official release by the Health Ministry had said.

COVID vaccinations for 15-18 age group begins today: Instructions to states

• All states were informed that they can designate some COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) as dedicated CVC for the 15-18 age group exclusively which can also be reflected on Co-WIN. All such CVCs would ensure that there is no confusion in administering the vaccines
• The states were requested to ensure separate queues for the 15-18 age group, along with separate vaccination teams
• According to the instructions, two separate vaccination teams at the same CVC (one for 15-18 age groups and the other for all adults) should be set up to avoid confusion in the administration of the right vaccines
• States should ensure that all beneficiaries wait for half an hour when they will be monitored for the adverse event following immunization (AEFI) and will be eligible for the second dose only after 28 days
• States/UTs were further advised to ensure the orientation of vaccinators and vaccination team members for vaccination of 15-18 years age-group 
• The identification of dedicated session sites for vaccination of 15-18 years age-group should be done
• States were exhorted to undertake proper planning in advance for the distribution of Covaxin to identified session sites

COVID-19 precautionary dose

The prime minister had also announced the administration of precautionary dose for those above 60 years of age, to which the Union Health Secretary had highlighted that nine months (39 weeks) must have elapsed since the administration of the second dose to make the beneficiary eligible.

Drawing attention to misinformation being propagated regarding the requirement of a doctor’s certificate to establish co-morbidity at the CVC, he categorically emphasized that the Union Government has not issued any directions on the said matter and prescriptions/certificates are not mandated to be produced at the CVC for the administration of the precaution dose. 

He also informed that Co-WIN will send reminder messages to all those eligible for the precautionary dose and the same will be reflected on the digital vaccination certificates.

News Credit: India TV News