With children’s vaccination kicking off in India from Monday, states and Union Territories across the country have started the drive in their respective capacities. Children in the age group from 15-18 will start receiving their first dose of Covid-19 jab. The registration for the same began on January 1, 2022.
The announcement for children’s vaccination was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise address to the nation on Christmas, last year. During the announcement, Modi said that he hoped that the vaccination for children will reduce their worries of going to schools and colleges and their parents, and boost the fight against the pandemic. He added that the move is likely to aid in the normalisation of teaching in schools.
According to guidelines, children have to register on the CoWIN platform using their student ID cards and Aadhar. The children will be receiving Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin as their vaccination against the infectious Covid-19 and Omicron.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya took to Twitter to request people to register eligible children in their families.
In a recent meeting, the Centre had directed various steps to states for the smooth conduct of the vaccination drive. States have been asked to set up separate dedicated Covid vaccination centres for the 15-18 age group, along with separate vaccination teams and queues at all centres.
As the country now gears up for the next step of vaccination, here’s how states are rolling out the children’s vaccination drive.
1. West Bengal
Amid recent restrictions, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim has said that the vaccination drive for children in Kolkata will be conducted in 16 different schools, according to local media. Hakim further added that doctors will be taken into all government schools during the drive, and he urged the private schools to have doctors placed during the vaccination drive. According to officials, all the Medical Colleges, 37 Urban Primary Health Centres, 16 schools will administer the vaccine jabs. Private schools have requested parents to get their kids vaccinated from their educational institutions. Many schools have tied up with hospitals to set up immunisation centres and camps on their premises.
2. Delhi
The national capital is set to roll out the vaccination drive for children from 159 sites in government hospitals, schools and primary healthcare centres. According to reports, the drive will be expanded in a “camp mode” in private institutions from Tuesday if more than 500 children turn up on the first day. Most of the vaccination centres are the ones where Covaxin was already being administered. These are in addition to paid centres being set up in private schools. All centres will allow online, and walk-in registration. Besides this, camps will be set up in two private schools, where written consent from parents will be required for the vaccination of kids. According to data, at least 1.01 million children in the 15-18 age group in Delhi are eligible for vaccination. In the government centres, children must be accompanied by one of their parents.
3. Maharashtra
Ahead of the vaccination drive for children, CoWIN registrations in Mumbai faced a massive glitch on Saturday, leaving many in worry. Officials of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said that people could register on the app, but however, could not book the slots. According to reports, the vaccination drive will be carried out at nine jumbo centres in Richardson and Crudas at Byculla, NESCO jumbo centre, NSCI at Worli, BKC jumbo centre and jumbo centres at Kanjurmarg, Malad, Mulund and Dahisar. These centres will be operating as per the directives of the Centre and each has the capacity to vaccinate 1,500 children daily. Queues for children will be maintained separately to avoid a mixture of Covaxin with other adult vaccines. The Maharashtra public health department has made arrangements for the vaccination of 60.63 lakh eligible children at 650 centres.
4. Tamil Nadu
As many as 33,46,000 children in the age group of 15 to 18 years are eligible for vaccination in Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin inaugurated the vaccination for this age group at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School. Director of Public Health T S Selvavinayagam said that 80 per cent of those in the age group are studying in government-run schools and in private institutions in Class 10, Plus-1 and Plus-2. "Our plan is to vaccinate them in their schools by appointing a medical team. After checking the students' health, we plan to administer them with the (Bharat Biotech's) Covaxin," he said. Similar to the current practice of registering the CoWin portal for adults, the details of the children would be registered in the CoWin portal using the mobile number of a family member, according to local media.
5. Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha is set to launch the Covid-19 vaccination drive for children in the 15-18 age group on Monday from a government school, according to reports. While the L-G will launch the drive from the Government Higher Secondary School for boys in Gandhi Nagar, a similar event would be held at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Kothi Bagh of Srinagar by the additional chief secretary of the health and medical education department, reports PTI. As many as 8.33 lakh children will be targeted for inoculation during the drive in Jammu and Kashmir. The school education department has been asked to encourage children to come forward and get vaccinated from Monday. Children will be kept under vaccination for 30 minutes and the booster dose will be administered after 28 days.
6. Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan laid emphasis on conducting children’s vaccination on a war footing. Chouhan has urged elected representatives, volunteers band religious leaders to encourage children in their vaccination process and plans. The state government plans to provide jabs to over 40,000 students in this age group between January 3 and 6 across 1,086 schools of the district, Collector Avinash Lavania said on Sunday. Madhya Pradesh Immunisation Officer Dr Santosh Shukla had earlier said there are 36 lakh registered school children in the 15-18 age group in the state. “We have plans to administer doses to 12 lakh children on Monday. The vaccinations drive will be conducted across all schools.
7. Assam
The Northeast state plans to vaccinate all the students before their before 10th, 12th Board Exams 2022. According to reports, the Assam government aims to vaccinate all eligible recipients in the 15–18-year age bracket within a week, said health minister Keshav Mahanta. Schools have been directed to make the necessary arrangement as around 18 lakh students are about to receive Covaxin. Students from nearly 15 schools are expected to be vaccinated on a daily basis. The second dose is likely to be administered after 28 to 42 days, as per the government rules.
8. Punjab
Punjab is witnessing a strike of health workers and with more than 16,000 health workers on strike, the state is likely to witness a slow vaccination drive for children. According to newspapers, the first dose was administered at 11:30 am in Fazilika civil hospital. As most healthcare workers are on strike, the vaccination drive is being carried out by a few thousand are working who have been recruited in less than five-year tenures.
9. Puducherry
Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Monday kickstarted the coronavirus vaccination drive for children in the age group of 15 to 18 years. The initiative was started at the Thillayadi Valliammai Government High School in Kadirkamam. Vaccination would be done in all primary health centres and government hospitals. Arrangements were made to carry out the vaccination at all hospitals including Rajiv Gandhi Women and Child Hospital.
10. Uttar Pradesh
Ahead of the Assembly polls, the Uttar Pradesh government is carrying out the vaccination drive for more than 1 crore children in the age bracket of 15-18 years. Spot registration is also available and 40 government centres are administering the jabs across Lucknow. In Lucknow, the vaccination is being carried out at urban community health centres in Aishbagh, Alambagh, Aliganj, BKT, Indira Nagar, Gosaiganj, Nagram and so on. Vaccination in the Lok Bandhu and Civil hospitals will carry on vaccination till 10 pm every day.
