The COVID-19 vaccination drive for children in the age group of 12 to 14 years opened with much gusto on Wednesday as top state ministers arrived at the camps to review the first day of the programme. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “critical day in India’s efforts to vaccinate our citizens”, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was seen taking stock of the arrangements at a vaccination camp and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma campaigning in Guwahati. commenced. Karnataka Health Minister BC Nagesh was also seen at a camp, while his counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Telangana started programs for the children.
According to government data, as of 11 pm, over 367,000 children in the age group registered to receive the shots on the health ministry’s CoWIN portal. CoWIN’s dashboard showed that before midnight, a total of 260,136 children were given the first dose of the vaccine, while 367,735 registered for the shots.
However, some reports state that the vaccination numbers on the first day for the latest phase of the campaign are much lower than the numbers achieved on the first day of vaccination for children in the 15-18 age group. The campaign, which began with the biological E’s Corbevax vaccine (to be administered 28 days apart), saw vaccination largely via “walk-in”.
According to a report in Indian ExpressThe CoWIN portal was not updated to allow booking for these slots. As a result, very few children went to vaccination sites. He quoted officials in Delhi as saying that the vaccination team had to collect beneficiaries’ data offline for half a day as the portal was being updated.
“Today the turnout was very low as most of the people did not know whether they should visit the vaccination centers or not as the slots were not showing online. Not more than 1,000 shots would have been administered, but I really don’t know as the data is still being uploaded and compiled,” a Delhi government official was quoted as saying earlier in the day.
Officials in Delhi had earlier said that it would essentially be a symbolic exercise on the first day and that very few schools would be used as vaccination centres. Around six to seven lakh children in the age group of 12 to 14 years are eligible for vaccination in the city.
“A token of COVID vaccination was launched for the age group of 12-14 years on the occasion of National Immunization Day. Around 3,800 children were vaccinated across Delhi,” said a senior health department official.
Several COVID vaccination centers have been identified in 11 districts of Delhi for the vaccination exercise. The Delhi government has received 6,31,400 doses of the Corbavax vaccine.
A resident of Dilshad Garden said that she took her child and her neighbor’s son to a government school in Jammu and Kashmir in Dilshad Garden for vaccination after a school teacher informed it. The vaccination center in-charge there said that till noon 13 students had come from the same school for vaccination.
“Our staff is visiting the nearby areas and informing people about the vaccination facility in the school,” he said. Officials at a vaccination center in Greater Kailash-1 said it opened at 9 am, but not a single dose was given till noon.
Vaccination officer Pradeep Kumar said, “No one reached. This may be because people are not aware of the vaccination schedule. Besides, it’s a school day. We are hoping that the children will arrive for vaccinations over the weekend.” The major issue with vaccination is that each vial has 20 doses and to avoid wastage, several children must be present at a time. Kautilya Sarkar also has such a thing. The same situation was observed at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in nearby Chirag Enclave.
“There is a lack of awareness… We have asked schools to inform parents about the vaccination schedule. Also, the CoWIN system has not been updated.’ health Department.
“We are all ready. Staff have been trained, vaccine doses have been received and the education department is assisting us in this exercise,” said a senior official.
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