States prepare to vaccinate teenagers in age group of 15-18 years from January 3

India is preparing to inoculate its young population between the age group of 15 to 18 years from January 3. Centre has asked all the state governments to provide training to the vaccination staff and officers who will be inoculating the teenagers.

For this, dedicated vaccination centres have been set up in all states and in those places where it is not possible, states are asked to appoint separate vaccination teams and queues for children. Provisions for both walk-in and online registrations through CoWIN app have been provided for the eligible teenagers.

Registration on CoWIN portal will begin from January 1 and on-site registrations will start from January 3. Presently, only Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin would be used for vaccination of teenagers across country.

Assam

Assam government has identified an estimate population of 18.25 lakh teenagers eligible for vaccination.

Delhi

Delhi is likely to set up the vaccination drive for teenagers at existing centres. Government schools and hospitals and private hospitals will provide the facility to inoculate an estimated 7-9 lakh teenagers in the national capital.

Kerala

Kerala has also started preparation to inoculate about 15 lakh teenagers in the target group and arrangements would be made to vaccinate them after assessing their health status. State Health Minister Veena George said that efforts would be made to complete the vaccination for children at the earliest, in view of the emerging threat posed by the Omicron variant.

Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the state government was preparing to vaccinate children in the target group from January 3. Special drives will be organised in schools as part of the vaccination programme.

Maharashtra

Vaccination for teenagers is likely to take place at the existing inoculation centres. Maharashtra government is awaiting the final figure of those eligible for vaccination in the age group after which health department will check the stock of available vaccines.

Odisha

Registration for 25.53 lakh children in the state will soon begin on the COWIN portal. Camps will be held in schools and colleges for the vaccination drive, Director of Family Welfare and state vaccination in-charge Dr Bijay Panigrahi said.

Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu state health department has identified 33.20 lakh eligible beneficiaries for the drive, health minister M Subramanian said. Vaccination will be done for children at their schools and along with that special camps will also be conducted by the state.

West Bengal

The West Bengal government is gearing up to inoculate around 50 lakh eligible children in the age group of 15-18 years.