BHUBANESWAR: Amid the steady rise in new Covid cases, registration for vaccination of adolescents, aged 15-18, began on Saturday as the State government plans to start inoculating the younger population from January 3.
There was, however, lukewarm response from teenagers for online registration on the first day. Health officials said around five per cent (pc) of the 69,000 eligible beneficiaries registered on CoWIN portal till 5 pm from the State.
Director of Family Welfare and nodal officer of Covid vaccination Dr Bijay Panigrahi said the response from the younger generation was not encouraging and it could be due to the New Year celebration.
“We are expecting the registration to pick up in the coming days. The beneficiaries can also walk into vaccination centres and register themselves. Around 14 lakh doses of Covaxin have been dispatched to districts for the fourth phase inoculation drive slated to start from Monday,” he said.
The eligible beneficiaries can register themselves for the jab on Co-Win app or web portal and book their slots. If they do not have Aadhaar, PAN, Unique Disability ID or ration card, they can provide their school ID card with photo for registration.
The State has around 23.65 lakh eligible beneficiaries in the age group. The teenagers born between 2005 and 2007 can register on the portal for the jab.
Apart from the existing 2,700 vaccination centres where the adolescents will be administered vaccine during the morning hours, districts have been asked to organise camps in educational institutions as per requirement.
Meanwhile, the State reported 298 new cases, the highest number of infections in over a month, which took the tally to 10,55,132. The death toll rose to 8,462 as two men, aged 40 and 65, succumbed to the disease in Cuttack district.
The State had logged 335 Covid cases on November 25 and the daily case count did not exceed thereafter. The fresh cases went up by 30 pc in 24 hours as 228 infections were registered on Friday.
Khurda recorded the maximum 119 cases, followed by 35 in Cuttack, 23 in Sundargarh, 13 in Sambalpur and 11 in Puri. Among those infected, 33 were of 0-18 age group. With this the active cases rose to 1,655.