Children Can Register For Vaccines From Jan 1, All To Be Inoculated Within A Month: Odisha Health Dept

Children in the age group between 15 and 18 years can register online for the Covid-19 vaccination from January 1, 2022, while the inoculation drive for the concerned category will be completed within a month, informed Odisha Health and Family Welfare Director, Dr Bijay Panigrahi on Thursday.

Briefing the media on the strategy to be adopted inoculate the children in the State in a smooth manner, Panigrahi said, “The online registration for vaccine shots for teens between 15 and 18 age group will begin from January 1, 2022, while the vaccination will start from January 3 next year.”

Panigrahi stated that the district administrations have been directed to open dedicated Covid-19 session sites depending on the population between 15 and 18 years in their respective areas.

“In the existing session sites, children in the age group between 15 and 18 will be vaccination in the morning hours while the people from other categories will be administered vaccines in the evening hours,” said the State Health and Family Welfare Director.

The children can visit the allotted vaccination centres on the scheduled date and then, they have to complete the onsite registration process following which they will be inoculated, added Panigrahi.

“We currently have a stock of 14 lakh doses of Covaxin in the State. As per the data provided by the Centre, a total of 23.65 lakh children aged 15 to 18 are eligible to receive the vaccine in the State. We have set a target to inoculate all the children within one month. Therefore, we will carry out vaccination drives in schools and colleges, if needed,” he added.

On being asked regarding the administration of precaution doses for healthcare and frontline workers and people above 60 years with co-morbidities or other health problems scheduled to begin from January 10 next year, Panigrahi said, “We have not been clarified which booster will be administered to the health care and frontline workers and people above 60 years with co-morbidities. We hope a clarification regarding the shot will come before it.”

At present, the State has 7.05 lakh healthcare and frontline workers and around 10.47 lakh people above 60 years with co-morbidities, said the top health official.