Children can register for COVID vaccine using student IDs from January 1
Children between 15-18 years can register for COVID vaccination on the CoWIN portal from January 1, said R.S. Sharma, chairman of the government panel managing the platform, on Monday (December 27).
The government has made an additional provision on the CoWIN platform to make it easier for students, probably without an Aadhar card, to use their student IDs to register for the shots. As Omicron cases continue to rise alarmingly in the country, (India has reported 578 cases until now), Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Saturday announced that children in the 15-18 age group will be eligible to get their first round of COVID vaccines from January 3.
Vaccinating children will help schools and children to get back to normal, PM Modi had said during his late-night Christmas Day address.
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On Saturday, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin got emergency approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for use of the vaccine in children. According to the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, this vaccine has shown good immune response among children and produces better antibodies in adolescents than in adults, said media reports.
This is the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive emergency use authorisation after pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D had received the regulator’s nod for use in children from 12 to 18 years of age. ZyCov-D is developed indigenously and is the world’s first DNA-based, needle-free COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine requires three doses to be administered after a 28 day gap.
Children in India will get their vaccination from either of these vaccines. Other vaccines which have been cleared for trials are Serum Institute’s Novavax and Biological E’s Corbevax.
Many people, including parents, however seem to be skeptical of the government’s decision to start vaccinating children, who are in the low-risk group. They are largely concerned with the side-effects of the vaccine on children.
Meanwhile, the threat of Omicron looms large in India, as cases are increasing on a daily basis. The numbers shot up by more than 100 cases in the past 24 hours, according to the daily brief issued on Monday by the Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare. The government data said the country has added 156 cases of the highly infectious variant to its nationwide tally in the single-day stretch between Sunday and Monday.
