The Centre is likely to hold a crucial meeting with all states and Union Territories around 11am on Tuesday to discuss the rollout of the next phase of Covid-19 vaccination under which teenagers aged 15-18 will be inoculated and precautionary shots will be given to healthcare and frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities.
Sources said the Centre will likely assess vaccine availability in states and brief them on guidelines issued for the next phase of vaccination. While the vaccination drive for teenagers starts January 3, the other segment will receive precautionary doses from January 10.
The meeting will be chaired by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and will include the participation of chief secretaries and medical officers of all states and UTs.
As per guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry on Monday, children aged between 15 and 18 years would be able to register on the CoWIN portal from January 1 and the vaccine option for them would only be Covaxin.
The “Guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to HCWs, FLWs and 60+ population with comorbidities” will come into effect from January 3 and says “all those whose birth year is 2007” or before shall be eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.
CoWIN chief Dr RS Sharma said additional provision has been made on CoWIN through which students can register for vaccination on the portal using their student identity cards as some may not have Aadhaar or other ID cards. The beneficiaries (aged 15-18 years) can register themselves online through an existing account on Co-WIN or by creating a new account through a unique mobile number.
As per the guidelines, the prioritisation and sequencing of the “precaution dose” (third dose) for healthcare workers (HCWs), frontline workers (FLWs) and citizens above 60 years of age with comorbidities, would be based on completion of nine months from the date of administration of second dose, which is 39 weeks.
HCWs, FLWs and citizens aged 60 years or above with comorbidities will be able to access vaccination for the precaution dose through their existing Co-WIN account.
Eligibility for the precaution dose will be based on the date of administration of the second dose as recorded in the Co-WIN system, which will send an SMS for availing the precaution dose when it becomes due, the ministry informed.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment