The administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10, 2022.
For vaccination of the age group 15-18 years, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had informed the States, Union Territories that only ‘Covaxin’ is to be administered in this population category and additional doses of ‘Covaxin’ will be sent to all states and UTs.
Potential beneficiaries began registering themselves on the Co-WIN portal from January 1, 2022. They can also avail of a walk-in registration when vaccination commences from today.
Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category, the official release by the health ministry said.
Beneficiaries will be asked to wait for half-an-hour as they will be monitored for the adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) and will be eligible for the second dose only after 28 days.
States also have the option to designate some COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) as dedicated CVC for the 15-18 age group exclusively. These can in turn be reflected on Co-WIN. Dedicated CVCs would mean that there is no confusion in administering the vaccines.
States have also been advised to form two separate vaccination teams at the same CVC – one for 15-18 age groups and the other for all adults to avoid confusion in the administration of the right vaccines.
He categorically emphasised that the Union government has not issued any directions on the misinformation that prescriptions/certificates are mandated to be produced at the CVC for the administration of the precaution dose. He also informed that Co-WIN will send reminder messages to all those eligible for ‘precaution’ dose and ‘precaution’ dose will be reflected in the digital vaccination certificates.
