The Covid-19 vaccination drive for children between the ages of 12 and 14 years threw open with much vigour on Wednesday as top ministers of the states reached at camps to review the day one of the programme. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “important day in India’s efforts to vaccinate our citizens”, Uttar Pradesh chief minister was seen taking stock of the arrangements at a vaccination camp and his Assam counterpart Himanata Biswa Sarma launched the drive in Guwahati. Karnataka health minister BC Nagesh was also seen at a camp, while his counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Telangana launched the programme for children.
According to government data, by 11 pm, more than 367,000 children in the age group registered on the health ministry’s CoWIN portal to receive shots. CoWIN’s dashboard showed that before midnight, a total of 260,136 children were administered the first dose of the vaccine, while 367,735 registered for the shots.
Some reports, however, stated that the first-day vaccination numbers for the latest phase of the drive appeared to significantly fall short of what was achieved on the first day of inoculation for children in the 15-18 age group. The drive, which begun with Biological E’s Corbevax vaccine (to be administered 28 days apart), saw inoculation largely through “walk-in”.
According to a report in Indian Express, the CoWIN portal had not been updated to allow booking for these slots. This resulted in very few children walking into vaccination sites. They quoted officials in Delhi who said that the vaccination team had to collect data of beneficiaries offline for half a day as the portal was being updated.
“The turnout was very poor today as most people did not know whether they should go to the vaccination centres as the slots weren’t showing up online. Not more than 1,000 shots must have been administered, but I really do not know because the data is still being uploaded and compiled,” a Delhi government official was quoted earlier in the day.
The authorities in Delhi had earlier said it would essentially be a token exercise on the first day with very few schools being used as vaccination centres. About six to seven lakh children in the age bracket of 12 to 14 years are eligible for vaccination in the city.
“A token launch of Covid vaccination for the 12-14 years age group was done on the occasion of National Immunisation Day. About 3,800 children were vaccinated across Delhi,” a senior health department official said.
Several Covid vaccination centres across the 11 districts of Delhi have been identified for the inoculation exercise. The Delhi government has received 6,31,400 doses of the Corbevax vaccine.
A resident of Dilshad Garden said she took her child and her neighbour’s son to a government school at the J and K pocket of Dilshad Garden for vaccination after being informed about it by a school teacher. The vaccination centre in-charge there said 13 students, mostly from the same school, had come for vaccination till afternoon.
“Our staff are visiting the nearby areas and informing people about the vaccination facility at the school,” he added. Officials at a vaccination centre in Greater Kailash-I said it opened at 9 am, but not a single dose was administered till afternoon.
Pradeep Kumar, a vaccination officer, said, “No one arrived. It might be because people are not aware of the vaccination programme. Moreover, it is a school day. We are expecting students to arrive for vaccination on the weekend.” The major issue with the vaccination is that each vial has 20 doses and to avoid wastage, as many children should be present at a time. A similar situation was seen at the Kautilya Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in nearby Chirag Enclave.
“There is a lack of awareness… We have asked schools to inform parents about the vaccination programme. Moreover, the CoWIN system is not updated,” the official said. Delhi reported 131 fresh COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the viral disease on Tuesday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.42 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
“We are all prepared. Training has been given to the staff, vaccine doses have been received and the education department has been assisting us in the exercise,” a senior official told.
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