NEW DELHI: A day before the Covid vaccination drive for adolescents begins across the country, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday advised all states to guard against mix-up of jabs, as Covaxin alone has been approved for those in the 15-17 year age group.
“To avoid mixing-up of vaccines during administration, separate Covid vaccination centres, separate session sites, separate queue (if at same session where adult vaccination is ongoing) and separate vaccination team (if at same session site) are to be strived for,” he said.
With some states intending to hold vaccination camps in schools itself, jabbing ought to be wrapped up pretty soon. Goa, for example, is confident of vaccinating all its 72,000 children in 15-17 age group with the first dose in the next four days.
However, in Kerala, vaccination for children will be done in General/ District/ Taluk/ Community Health Centres till January 10 except on Wednesdays.
Dwelling on the super-spreading Omicron variant, Mandaviya said various countries are experiencing three to four times surge in Covid cases as compared to their earlier peaks, warning that a big jump could overwhelm India’s medical system, too.
In the face of the Omicron challenge, the Supreme Court decided to revert to online hearing of cases for the next two weeks. Other high courts, too, went back to virtual hearing. Odisha on Sunday registered 23 more Omicron cases, raising the state’s tally to 37.
In all, 1,525 cases of Omicron have been detected in 23 states and Union Territories as on Sunday morning. Maharashtra topped the list with 460 cases, followed by Delhi at 351, Gujarat 136, Tamil Nadu 117 and Kerala 109.
In Delhi, the case positivity rate went up to 4.59%, but Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal advised people not to panic as most patients are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms and do not need hospitalisation.
The CoWIN platform has till Sunday evening recorded over six lakh registrations in the age group of 15 to 18 years whose Covid vaccination is set to begin from January 3.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya advised states and Union Territories to provide separate vaccination centres, session sites, queue and different vaccination teams for the 15-18 year age group to avoid the mixing-up of vaccines.
The vaccine option for this age group would only be Covaxin, according to guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry on December 27.
The Drugs Controller General of India granted emergency use authorisation to indigenously-developed Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children above 12 years with certain conditions on December 24.
Mandaviya, who interacted with health ministers and principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and Union Territories on Sunday through a video link, stressed the need to ensure smooth implementation of new vaccination guidelines.
He advised them to ensure the orientation of vaccinators and vaccination team members and the identification of dedicated session sites for this category of beneficiaries.
The registration for this category of beneficiaries opened on Saturday.
According to the guidelines, they can self-register online through an existing account on CoWIN or can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number as is the case with all other categories of beneficiaries.
Till 7.50 pm on Sunday, over 6.35 lakh children in the age group of 15 to 18 years have registered in the CoWIN platform.
Beneficiaries in this age group can get themselves registered onsite.
(With PTI Inputs)