All preparations have been made to begin vaccination programme against Corona for children. From January 1, 2022, registrations will be started on the CoWin app to get children vaccinated.
According to Dr. RS Sharma, Chief of CoWIN Platform, for the children in the age group of 15-18 years necessary changes have been made on the CoWIN app from January 1. He said, "We've added an additional (10th) ID card for registration - the student ID card because some might not have Aadhaar or other identity cards."
Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is likely to be the only vaccine available for children in the age group of 15 to 18 years. However, Zydus Cadila's vaccine ZyCoV-D has also been approved for children. ZyCoV-D was the first vaccine approved for use on children, but it cannot be part of the vaccination program starting January 3 as it has not yet been used for adults.
On Sunday, Dr NK Arora, President, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) said that children have shown good immune response to Covaxin during trials. In an interview to news agency ANI, Dr. Arora said that children of 12 to 18 years, especially in the age group of 15 to 18 years, are very much like adults. The research within the country also states that almost two-thirds of the deaths due to COVID in India belong to this age group. This is the reason why it has been decided to vaccinate children.