Over 40 lakh teens get jabs on first day of Covid-19 vaccination for 15-18 age group: Centre

On the first day of Covid19 vaccination for children in 15 to 18 years age group more than 40 lakh vaccine doses were administered till 830 pm on Monday as per the CoWIN portalTerming the achievement as another feather in the cap in Indias ongoing nationwide vaccination drive in which the country earlier crossed the milestone of administering over 100 crore vaccine doses Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted Well done Young India Over 40 lakhs between 1518 age group received their first dose of COVID19 vaccine on the first day of vaccination drive for children till 8 pm This is another feather in the cap of Indias vaccination driveIt is to be noted that the vaccination registration for children in this age group began on January 1 while the drive commenced on January 3The vaccination is being carried out in consultation with hospitals health centres and schoolsEarlier in the day the Union Health Minister visited a Covid19 vaccination site for children at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and interacted with some of the beneficiaries During his interaction Mandaviya asked them to motivate their friends to get vaccinatedA large number of vaccination centres administered Covaxin at different centres schools and hospitalsWith the launch of vaccinations for children between 1518 years we have made a beginning in protecting our future and the future of the country This is an age group that needs to be protected against Covid19 and vaccination will help in mitigating the severity and preventing complications of Covid19 in children said Prathap C Reddy Chairman of Apollo Hospitals GroupWe have a capacity of administering vaccine doses to 200 children in a single day but today it was the first day So as a precaution we inoculated doses to just 50 children today Dr Sameer Bhati in charge of vaccination centre at Tilak Nagar told ANIInitially due to Omicron fear fewer children turned up for vaccination but later when they witnessed no risk then they came forward he addedDr Bhati said that for a dose of Covaxin they charged Rs 1200Most of the beneficiaries said that they are not feeling anything yet after the vaccination They are excited after the vaccination and feeling safe he remarkedDr Sameer Kulkarni Regional Director of Paras Healthcare said Since schools and colleges have opened earlier this year several outbreaks in residential schools and college dorms have been reported As a result its critical that we should do everything we can to ensure that our children are healthy and safeThe vaccine drive for children for ages 1518 is certainly a welcome move by the government We believe that the vaccines are safe The risks of contracting Covid19 greatly outweigh any minor adverse effects that may occur as a result of immunization While children by and large have only a mild disease themselves a small number of them may get sick enough to require hospitalization as was seen in South Africa lately The vaccination can mitigate the severity of disease in children so they can be managed at home and this can prevent the health services from being overwhelmed with additional load he addedWe have done all arrangements like social distancing vaccination facilities We are distributing tokens to avoid the crowd and vaccinating them on the basis of tokens We also have an observation point where children have to wait for sometime after vaccination said Dr Anjali Saxena Madhukar Rainbow HospitalAnanya a student of Modern School in Delhi after vaccination said I was the first to get the vaccination at Maulana Azad Medical College All my family members are fully vaccinated Thus I wasnt having any fear about vaccinationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever