Nagaland yet to get green signal for inoculation of children aged between 12-14

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 14 (EMN): The government of India has announced that Covid-19 vaccination for children aged 12 to 14 would begin on March 16 and precautionary dose would be opened for people aged 60 and above.

This was informed by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday.

Mandaviya urged all the eligible children and people in the age group of 60+ to get the vaccine.

The Health ministry, in a separate press release, informed that the Centre had decided to start Covid-19 vaccination for children in 12-13 years and 13-14 years age groups (those born in 2008, 2009, and 2010, i.e. those who are already above 12 years of age) of the population from March 16, 2022. The decision was said to be taken after due deliberations with scientific bodies.

The Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to these age groups is Corbevax, manufactured by Biological Evans, Hyderabad, it was informed.

People aged above 14 years are already being administered with Covid-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, the ministry also informed that the condition of co-morbidity for the population over 60 years of age to receive the Covid-19 precaution dose, will be removed, making the people belonging to this age group eligible for the precaution dose starting from March 16.

State Immunisation Officer, Dr. Ritu Thurr informed this newspaper that Nagaland has already received Corbevax from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to vaccinate children belonging to 12-14 age group. However, the department is awaiting further directives from the union ministry.

‘We are yet to receive a green signal from the ministry to carry out activities as well as when to roll out the vaccine for these age groups. As and when we receive green signal from the ministry, we would start capacity building training to the entire district and block levels because it is a new vaccine,’ Thurr said.

In Nagaland, a total of 23,592 have been vaccinated with precaution dose in the category of healthcare workers, frontline workers, and 60+ with co-morbidities as on March 13, the State Health Department reported.

The state has also administered a total of 14,53,124 of Covishield and Sputnik-V in the category of healthcare workers, frontline workers, 18 to 44 years, and 45 years and above as on March 13.

A total of 88,620 Covaxin doses have been administered to those aged between 15 and 18 years in the state; out of this, 61,348 (43.20%) were vaccinated with the first dose and 27,272 (19.20%) with the second dose.