VIJAYAWADA: The Health Department is all set to administer the Covaxin vaccine to teenagers in the age group of 15-18 from January 3.
In a press release on Friday, Health Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar said Covaxin will be administered to 25 lakh teenagers in the state from January 3 to 7 in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. “We have readied 40 lakh doses of Covaxin. The vaccine will be administered to teenagers with the help of 19 lakh ANMs at the doorstep of beneficiaries,” he said.
Bhaskar further said the booster dose to the people aged above 60 and health staff and frontline workers will be administered from January 10. However, the booster dose will be administered to those who took the second dose of vaccine nine months ago.
According to an estimate, there are 14 lakh people aged above 60 years, who took both the doses of Covid vaccine. All of them will be administered the booster dose in the wake of Omicron threat. The government has taken every measure to prevent the spread of Omicron in the state as per the directions of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Health Department has been fully geared up to face any eventuality, he asserted.
“We have focused on those who are coming from abroad, particularly from any of 11 ‘at risk’ countries. In all, 17 Omicron cases have been reported in the state so far. Around 40,000 people have come from abroad after the outbreak of Omicron. More than 16,000 foreign returnees have been tested,” he explained.
Bhaskar allayed the fears of people, stating that the impact of Omicron is less compared to Delta variant. Covid Appropriate Behaviour should be strictly followed by all to protect themselves from the virus, he said.
A laboratory for genome sequencing will start functioning at Siddhartha Medical College in Vijayawada soon. At present, trial runs are being conducted in the lab, he added.