India has announced that it will begin vaccinating teenagers aged between 15 and 18 from January 3 and will provide a booster dose to eligible adults from January 10. The CoWIN platform will be upgraded for this purpose.
The union health ministry has said that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is likely to be available for young adults from January 3.
So far, the country’s vaccination drive is estimated to have covered 90% of the adult population with a single dose, while 61% have received two doses, beginning from January 15, 2021.
“Those who have got two doses of the vaccines —frontline and health workers as well as people above 60 years with some comorbidities — and have completed nine months from the last dose of the vaccine, will be eligible for the third dose,” according to Sharma, who is also the chairman of the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration. “The other protocols will remain the same as before — like a person will know at the time of booking of vaccination slots which vaccine is available at the Covid vaccination centre,” said Sharma.
“We will go by the year of birth, which will be 2007 or before, at the time of registration on CoWIN, and there is no cut-off date for (eligible) children,” he said. While introducing vaccination for the 45–59-year age group earlier this year, the government had kept a cut-off date of January 1, 1977.
