New Delhi: Now that out of the estimated 7.4 crore children in the 15-18 age bracket, over 3.45 crore have already received their first doses of vaccination, India will likely begin inoculating children in the 12-14 age groups against Covid10 from March.
Dr N K Arora, Chairman of the COVID-19 working group NTAGI, said over 3.45 crore children have already received the first dose of Covaxin so far and their second dose is due in 28 days.
"Adolescents in this age group have been actively participating in the inoculation process, and going by this pace of vaccination, the rest of the beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group are likely to be covered with the first dose by January-end and subsequently their second dose is expected to be done by February-end," he said.
The Chairman of the Covid working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) said there is an estimated 7.5 crore population in the 12-14 age group in the country.
Provisional vaccination reports till 7 am on Monday showed that over 39 lakh doses were administered in 24 hours, taking the cumulative number to over 157.2 crore doses. The vaccination against the pandemic started on Jan 16, 2021, initially with health workers and frontline workers.
The country launched vaccination for all aged over 45 years from April 1, 2021, and allowed everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1. For children between the age group of 15 and 18, the vaccination started from Jan 3 this year.
India has also begun administering the "precaution dose" – the third jab of COVID-19 vaccine – to healthcare, frontline workers including personnel deployed for election duty and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10.
