Covid Vaccination For Children: CoWin Registration For 15-18 Year Age Group Begins Today

The inoculation drive for the children will begin on January 3. And the vaccine option available for children will be indigenously prepared Covaxin.

New Delhi: Along with the New Year, CoWin registrations for vaccination of children aged between 15-18 years have also begun. Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya informed about the starting of registrations on his Twitter handle.

Dr. Mandaviya wrote, “If the children are safe, then the future of the country is safe! On the occasion of New Year, registration is being started on COWIN portal for immunization of children #COVID19 in the age group of 15 to 18 years from today. I request the family members to register the eligible children for vaccination. #SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine.”

The inoculation drive for the children will begin on January 3. And the vaccine option available for children will be indigenously prepared Covaxin. For registering children, a provision on the CoWin website has been made to accept school ID cards as identification proof considering that many of them might not have Aadhar or other ID proofs. 

The Prime Minister had announced in a televised address to the nation that the vaccines for children between the ages of 15 and 18 years, would be administered from January 3 onwards.

For the same, ‘Guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to HCWs, FLWs and 60+ population with comorbidities’ were issued by the Union Health Ministry, earlier this week. According to these guidelines, “all those whose birth year is 2007 or before, shall be eligible” for the vaccine, reported news agency PTI.

The decision for vaccinating the children in the above-mentioned age group was taken in light of the increasing number of covid-19 cases credited to the new Omicron variant. As for the children younger than 15 years, Zydus Cadila's ZyCov-D was given the Emergency use Authorization by the Drug Controller General of India in August 2020. 

However, the vaccine is yet to be introduced in the inoculation drive of the country. ZyCov-D can be used for children aged between 12 to 18 years. As per DCGI, Covaxin was given EUA for children above 12 years with certain conditions.

Besides children, the announcement for a “precaution dose” was also made by the PM which would begin from January 10. The third dose of vaccine would be available for frontline workers as well as those with comorbidities above the age of 60 years. The decision for the dose can be taken with consultation from the doctor.