The Centre on Tuesday released guidelines for Covid-19 vaccination of children between 12-14 years that will begin from 16 March and said only Corbevax vaccine would be used for the beneficiaries of this age group. Two doses of Biological E’s intramuscular vaccine Corbevax would be administered to the beneficiaries in the 12-14 years age group at an interval of 28 days, the guidelines said.
The Centre shared also these guidelines with states in a letter issued on Monday. Covid-19 vaccination of children between 12-14 years will begin from 16 March and only Corbevax vaccine would be used for beneficiaries of age group 12-13 and 13-14 years, it said. Beneficiaries between 14-15 years have already been covered during the vaccination for 15-18 years’ age group. According to the guidelines, as of March 1, 2021 there are as many as 4.7 crore children aged 12 and 13 years in the country. Also, precaution dose can now be provided to all persons aged 60 years and above and the prioritization and sequencing of this dose would be based on completion of nine months–39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose. The guidelines said the vaccination of precaution dose should be with the same vaccine with which primary vaccination was done. According to the guidelines, all beneficiaries born in 2010 or earlier–those who have already attained the age of 12 years–will be able to register on CoWIN. “The vaccination slots will be booked for 12-14 years age group for “CorBEvax” only through Co-WIN. Vaccinator has to ensure that the vaccine is administered to only those children who have completed the age of 12 years on the date of vaccination and if a child is registered but has not attained the age of 12 years, the vaccination is not to be given,” the guidelines said. The registration can be done through the following modes– self-registration through an existing account on Co-WIN of a family member or by creating a new account through a unique mobile number (this facility is available for all eligible citizens presently), they said. It can also be done through onsite registration by the vaccinator in facilitated registration mode and appointments can be booked online or onsite (walk-in) for 12-14 years. Meanwhile, Dr N.K. Arora, Chairman of Covid-19 Working Group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) said that the primary focus was immunisation of children with co-morbidities, but “due to the unavailability of data of such children, we have decided to open immunization for all the children between the age group of 12-15 years”. “Almost three months ago, Standing Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of NTAGI meeting took place where we suggested that the vaccination should be opened for all the children’s between the age group of 2-18 with comorbidities as and when approved vaccine comes,” said Arora. “Initially, we started with the age group of 15-18 because maximum deaths occur in this age group, but the age group of 12-15 is also suffering from severe disease. Hence, the decision was taken to start their vaccination,” he said. Quoting issues like encouraging children with co-morbidities to take vaccines, Arora said the decision was taken on the basis of STSC and global recommendations and also from a programmatic (logistical) perspective.