Jabs for 6 lakh kids aged 12-14 start today

New Delhi: With 6,31,400 doses of Corbevax in its arsenal and 140 Covid vaccination centres identified across all 11 districts, Delhi is all geared up to begin the Covid-19 vaccination of children aged between 12 and 14 years from today (Wednesday) as the Centre cleared the way for it. Official sources have said that preliminary estimates suggest an initial target population of 6 to 7 lakh, who qualify under this age criterion.

"We are all prepared, with training having been imparted to staff from all stakeholder departments, vaccine doses received, and the education department also assisting us in the exercise. The challenge would be to ensure that the beneficiary coming for vaccination is not even a day younger than 12 years on any day of the vaccination," a senior official told newswires.

"As vaccination for this age group begins Wednesday, on day one, there would be only be a token exercise and not a full-fledged one, with authorities in each district choosing one school for it. Some district may choose more than one school, but largely it will be a token exercise, meaning, only a few children will be vaccinated," he said.

Asked the reason behind the planned token exercise on day one, the official said as there are software integration issues for this age group on CoWIN portal, since it is a new group, so strict scrutiny for the age validity will be needed, and "so, mostly it

will be done through walk-in on Wednesday".

"We will check Aadhaar card or school I-card to ensure the beneficiary is absolutely eligible as per the norm," he added. Official sources said there will be dedicated outreach CVCs (Covid vaccination centres) for all private schools which will request

the authorities.

For government schools, similar sessions would be held in consultation with director of education and other authorities, they said, adding vaccines will also be made available in some of the main CVCs, along with other Covid vaccines.

According to data shared by the official sources, 140 CVCs across 11 districts in Delhi have been identified for the inoculation exercise — these include hospitals like the LNJP Hospital, Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, Chacha Bal Nehru Chikitsalaya, Guru Govind Singh Government Hospital, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Hospital, Indira Gandhi Hospital (Dwarka).

Some other centres identified for starting the exercise include community centres, government dispensaries and most commonly government-run schools across all districts.

District authorities in the national capital have also geared up for the vaccination of children in this age group. Vaccine doses and logistics material have been distributed to all districts in the city, officials said, adding that token vaccination exercise will be held on Wednesday on the occasion of the National Vaccination Day.

Nearly 25-30 centres across the city will be made where COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted for the group. Most of these sites will be at schools. Along with doctors and nurses, teachers and civil defence volunteers would also be engaged in this "mass exercise," they said.

A senior official from south east district here said vaccination for children of the age group of 12-14 years will be conducted at four sites in

Kalkaji, Sarita Vihar and Jangpura. "There are 84,000 children in the district, who fall

in the age bracket of 12-14 years," they said.

The Directorate of Education has also been approached to provide a school-wise list of eligible children so that they can be administered vaccines at their school premises only, officials said. The number of vaccination centres will be increased from Thursday onwards, the official added.

Delhi on Tuesday reported 131 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 0.42 per cent. The number of active Covid cases stand at 657.