Over 40 Lakh Children Between 15-18 Years Get Jabs On First Day Of Vaccination

Over 40 lakh children between ages 15-18 have been given Covid-19 vaccine jabs on Monday. The drive continued till 8 pm as per data shared by the CoWIN portal.

Over 39.88 lakh beneficiaries between the ages of 15 to 18 had registered on the CoWIN portal till Monday afternoon. The registration for the same began on January 1.

Educational institutions, government centres across the country were transformed into vaccination centres, where children received their first shot of Covaxin.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and wrote, “Today we have taken an important step forward in protecting our youth against COVID-19. Congrats to all my young friends between the age group of 15-18 who got vaccinated. Congrats to their parents as well. I would urge more youngsters to get vaccinated in the coming days!”

Similarly, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote on Twitter, "Well done Young India! Over 40 Lakhs between 15-18 age group received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on the 1st day of the vaccination drive for children, till 8 PM. This is another feather in the cap of India’s vaccination drive."

Chief Ministers of different states and Union Territories kicked off the vaccination drive under their respective governments while encouraging more children to get the jab amid fear of rising Omicron cases.

Over 20,900 children of Delhi between the age of 15 to 18 years received Covid vaccine doses on the first day of the inoculation drive of this group of beneficiaries. In the northeast district, the highest 3,687 children were vaccinated. In the Central district, the least 739 children received the vaccine shots till 6 pm. As many as 2,667 beneficiaries in the age group of 15 to 18 years in the Southwest district received the shots, 2,268 in the east district and 2,034 in New Delhi. In west Delhi 1,956 children were vaccinated, 1,806 in south Delhi, 1,705 in South East Delhi, 1,394 in north district, 1,210 in northwest Delhi and 1,532 in Shahdara. At Centre-run hospitals — AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Safdarjung Hospital — the number of children inoculated was 393, 90 and 185 respectively, according to reports.

In Punjab, around 3,071 children between 15 years to 18 years were jabbed on the first day, according to reports. Chandigarh saw a total administration of 1,826 Covaxin across 10 centres in the state.

In the southern state of Kerala, doses were administered to over 38,417 children on the first day with Thiruvananthapuram alone administering 9,338 children, according to media reports. While 5,018 children were vaccinated in Thrissur, children’s vaccination in Kollam touched 6,868. There were a total of 551 vaccination centres for children.

While Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been the only approved vaccine for children, two more vaccines -- Corbevax and Covovax -- have been approved by the Centre and can be used as booster shots. According to reports and sources, the two vaccines could be used as booster shots.