KMC to use Covaxin centres to inoculate 12-14-year-olds

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will use its 37 Covaxin centres in the city for vaccination of the age group of 12-14 years that is slated to start from Monday. Mayor Firhad Hakim informed on Saturday that Chetla Girls High School will also have inoculation facilities from Monday. The state Health department has already notified that vaccination for the 12-14 age group will start from Monday.

KMC has written to the schools in the city whether they would want to be a part of the vaccination drive for the school students of this particular age group. If they are willing, KMC can arrange vaccinators so that the latter can go to the interested schools and provide jabs to their respective students.

Earlier, the schools had acted as venues for vaccination of the age group from 15-17 years.

"The demand of first and second dose of Covaxin is very less in the city. So Covaxin will not be offered in the next two weeks. The Covaxin venues will instead be used for administering Corbevax to the 12-14 age group," a senior official of KMC's Health department said.

Names can be registered in the CoWin portal or at the vaccination centre itself. Any photo identification card of the student recipient or student's identity card having a unique number can be used for registration at the centre.

Approximately 30 lakh population belonging to this age group will be covered.

Corbevax vaccine is India's first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) Protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid.

It is administered through an intramuscular route with two doses scheduled 28 days apart.