New Delhi: Union health ministry on Monday issued guidelines for covid-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to healthcare workers (HCWs), frontline workers (FLWs) and above aged 60 population with comorbidities.
While children between 15 to 18 will receive Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, the government has not yet made it clear whether the other eligible categories of beneficiaries will be allowed to receive a different vaccine as an additional shot.
The government said that keeping in view the recent global surge of Covid-19 cases, detection of Omicron variant which has been categorized as a Variant of Concern (VOC), scientific evidence, global practices and the inputs and suggestions of ‘Covid-19 Working Group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI)’ as well as of ‘Standing Technical Scientific Committee (STSC)’ of NTAGI it has now been decided to further refine the scientific prioritization and coverage of covid-19 vaccination.
“Covid -19 Vaccination of children in the age-group of 15-18 years to be started from 3rd January 2022. For such beneficiaries, vaccination option would be “Covaxin" only. The government said that as a matter of abundant precaution, for those Health Care Workers (HCWs) and Front Line Workers (FLWs) who have received two doses, another dose of covid-19 vaccine would be provided from 10th January 2022," the guidelines said.
“The prioritization and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of second dose. All persons aged 60 years and above with comorbidities who have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine, will on doctor’s advice be provided with a precaution dose from 10 January 2022. The prioritization and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of second dose," the guidelines said.
According to the guidelines, all HCWs, FLWs and citizens aged 60 years or above with comorbidities will be able to access the vaccination for precaution dose through their existing Co-WIN account. Eligibility of such beneficiaries for the precaution dose will be based on the date of administration of second dose as recorded in the Co-WIN system, the guidelines said.
Co-WIN system will send SMS to such beneficiaries for availing the precaution dose when the dose becomes due. d. Registration and appointment services can be accessed through both, the online and the onsite modes. Further, the details of administration of the precaution dose will be suitably reflected in the vaccination certificates.
All those aged 15 years or more, according to the guidelines, will be able to register on Co-WIN. In other worlds, all those whose birth year is 2007 or before, shall be eligible. Beneficiaries can self-register, online through an existing account on Co-WIN or can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number, this facility is available for all eligible citizens presently.
“Such beneficiaries can also be registered onsite by the verifier/vaccinator in facilitated registration mode. Appointments can be booked online or onsite (walk-in). e. For such beneficiaries, option for vaccination would only be available for Covaxin as this is the only vaccine with emergency use listing (EUL) for the age-group 15-17," the guidelines state.
The union health ministry said that 90% of the adult population of the country has been covered with at least one dose and 62% of the adult population has been covered with both doses.
