Vaccination of children: When and where to register, and what vaccine options are available for those aged 15 to 18?
New Delhi: Children aged 15 to 18 years will be able to register on the CoWIN portal beginning January 1, with only Covaxin as a vaccine option. The announcement came as preparations were made to begin immunising children against COVID-19 on January 3.
“Children between the ages of 15 and 18 will be able to register on the CoWIN portal beginning January 1,” CoWIN chief Dr. RS Sharma said on Monday.
According to the “Guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to HCWs, FLWs, and 60+ population with comorbidities” issued by the Union Health Ministry on Monday, the only vaccine option for those aged 15 to 18 would be Covaxin.
Those aged 15 and up will be able to register on CoWIN, according to the guidelines, which will go into effect on January 3. To put it another way, “all those whose birth year is 2007” or earlier are eligible.
According to Sharma, an additional provision has been made on CoWIN for students to register for vaccination on the portal using their student identity cards, as some may not have Aadhaar or other ID cards.
Beneficiaries (aged 15-18) can register online using an existing Co-WIN account or by creating a new account using a unique mobile number. This service is currently available to all eligible citizens.
According to the guidelines, such beneficiaries can also be registered at the vaccination sites by the verifier or the vaccinator in the facilitated registration mode, and appointments can be booked online or on-site (walk-in).
In a televised address to the nation on Saturday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that vaccination against COVID-19 for children aged 15 to 18 years old will begin on January 3, with a “precaution dose” for healthcare and frontline workers beginning on January 10 – decisions made in response to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases linked to its Omicron variant.
PM Modi stated that the precaution dose will be made available to citizens over the age of 60 and with comorbidities on the advice of their doctors beginning January 10.
Zydus Cadila’s anti-Covid vaccine ZyCoV-D has yet to be included in the country’s inoculation programme, even though it received the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the drug regulator on August 20, making it the country’s first vaccine to be administered to children aged 12 to 18.
On Friday, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted an EUA to an indigenously developed Covaxin for children over the age of 12 years, subject to certain conditions.
