State receives 4 lakh Corbevax doses for 12 to 15 age group

KOLKATA: Bengal has received about 4 lakh doses of Corbevax vaccine, which would be administered among children between 12 and 15 years in the state. The Union Health ministry is yet to issue a directive or rollout date for the drive in this age group.

Bengal has cumulatively administered around 12.92 crore doses so far in Bengal since the immunisation drive began out of which around 1,29,010 doses were administered in the past 24 hours. Around 6.97 crore people have received first Covid doses while around 5.79 crore received double doses. Around 9,617 first doses have been administered on Sunday.

State health officials said stocking up the vials was part of preparation for the rollout. It may be mentioned here that Drugs Controller General of India had granted emergency use authorization to vaccinne for children in the age group 12-18. This is the second vaccinne to get approval for children and adolescents in this age group after Bharat Biotech's Covaxin which is currently being administered among adolescents in the age group 15-17.

These new doses of the vaccinne have been kept at state's central medical center at Bagbazar. Thanks vaccinne will be administered among the age group 12-15. There are around 45-48 lakh adolescents in the state who are between 12-15. This vaccinne will be administered in two doses in a gap of 28 days. According to a health department official, the administration of the new vaccine will be done at the school following the same standard operating failure that is being followed in case of the adolescents in the age group 15-18. The state health is department is taking preparation to launch the vaccine after getting final clearance from the Centre.

State has so far administered over 16,12,158 booster or precautionary doses of Covid vaccine on the health professionals, front-line workers and senior citizens till Sunday. Around 6,788 booster doses were administered across the state on Sunday. Around 6,954 AEFI cases have been reported across Bengal so far. Around 2,991 Covid vaccination centers have been operational in the state. Incidentally, the state had already started administering a second dose of Covaxine among adolescents in the age group 15-18. Nearly around 45 lakh eligible adolescents in this age group have received doses.

It may be mentioned here that Bengal has been successfully extracting minimum 7 to 10 extra doses of vaccine on an average basis from 10 vials for over a long time. The extraction of extra doses are beyond the labeled quantity of doses supposed to be administered.