India is all set to vaccinate its adolescents in the age group of 15-18. The vaccination drive is expected to begin on Monday, 3 January. Online registrations on CoWIN for the same began on Sunday, 2 January, and within hours (as of 9:30 AM), the website had already seen nearly 3,57,984 registrations for this age group. This number stood at 5,31,584 in the portal at around 3:30 PM on Sunday.
PM Modi had announced on December 25 that the vaccine would now be available for the 15-18 age group as well. All those born in 2007 or before are now eligible for the vaccine against COVID-19 in India.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday, 26 December, approved Covaxin for emergency use in children above the age of 12, making it the only vaccine currently available in India to inoculate children.
Two doses of the vaccine will be provided. However, the second dose will be administered within a shorter time gap of 20 days.
Registration on CoWIN is not mandatory. Appointments can be booked online or on-site (walk-in).
While vaccination for children aged 15-18 will start from 3 January 2022, nothing yet has been confirmed on the vaccination of children aged 12-14.
So far, 92, 27,30,121 registrations have been made for the vaccine on the CoWIN portal as of 3:30 PM on Sunday. Of these, 57,42,16,662 are for the 18-44 age group, and 34,79,81,875 for those aged 45 and above.
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