Covid-19: Assam aims to vaccinate 3 lakh children daily Guwahati News – Times of India

GUWAHATI: The Assam government has set up around 20 COVID immunization centers in each district of the state for people in the age group of 15 to 18 years, as the state is facing one. extremely hard Work to cover about three lakh children per day to meet the target of immunization of all eligible adolescent girls by January 9.
Health department sources said the state has an estimated 20 lakh population who need vaccination in just seven days from Monday. A senior health department official said, this is going to be an uphill task as many thousands of adult beneficiaries will also have to be vaccinated simultaneously with the vital second jab. Presently about 1.5 lakh doses are being given daily in the state.
“In the age group of 15 to 18 years, those who will get the jab by January 9 will be vaccinated with the second dose by February. Board exams are going to be held in March.” Keshab Mahanta,
The vaccination team of the units of the District Health Department will visit the schools from Monday to vaccinate the school children. “The concerned district administration, district education officers and officials of educational institutions will assist them,” a statement from the health minister said.The Office on Sunday. District Deputy Commissioners have been entrusted with the task of monitoring the vaccination campaign.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma I will inaugurate children’s vaccination campaign Oil India Higher Secondary School, Duliajan in Dibrugarh district of Upper Assam, while the Health Minister will start the vaccination campaign from Mahant Gopal Boro Higher Secondary School in Guwahati.
Even as Assam currently has a stockpile of 14 lakh covaccine doses, which will be widely used for immunization of children, a health department spokesperson said that an additional consignment of 8.16 lakh covaccine doses will be available in the state on January 4. Will come in
Health department sources told TOI that school dropouts or children from other states, who do not have documents to prove their age and identity, will also be vaccinated in the 15-18 age group in the vaccination drive. “Like homeless adults, we also have to consider cases of children who cannot provide proof of age and identity,” a senior state health department official said. technically, state health department Said children who were born on or before December 31, 2007 are now eligible for vaccination.
However, there is another issue in the state where many government schools do not issue identity cards to the students. Health department sources said school authorities have been authorized to assign a four-digit unique identification number to every genuine student in such schools.
“Small districts will have 10 to 15 COVID vaccination centers for children and 15 to 20 in large districts. But in order to complete the task on time, the district authorities have been empowered to increase the number of centres,” the state nodal officer for COVID-19 vaccination, Munindra Nath Ngatey, told TOI. He said that the parents of the children can also pre-register the names of their children in the CoWIN portal for hassle-free immunization.

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