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Vaccination begins for 12-15 age group: Only 101 children turn up in Chandigarh tricity on Day 1
Only four children turned up for vaccination in Mohali district, 37 in Chandigarh and 60 in Panchkula district as the vaccination drive for children aged 12 to 15 kicked off on Wednesday
The long-awaited Covid vaccination drive for children aged 12 to 15 opened to poor response on Wednesday, as only 101 kids showed up to get the jab across the tricity.
As per population estimates, around 45,000 children in this age group are eligible for vaccination in Chandigarh and 43,000 in Mohali, while the Panchkula administration has yet to determine the figure.
However, on Wednesday, only four children turned up for vaccination in Mohali district, where the drive is underway at nine government hospitals.
With 37 children, the response was better in Chandigarh, although far lower than expected, and highest in Panchkula, where the first dose of Corbevax vaccine was administered to 60 children. The second dose of the vaccine should be 28 days apart.
“We were expecting a good response on the first day, but not many children came forward. This could be due to the annual examinations underway at most schools. Also, many children got infected with the virus during the third wave of the pandemic, which peaked in January this year, making them ineligible for vaccination,” said Dr Suman Singh, director, health services, Chandigarh.
She said all 37 children immunised on Wednesday were kept under observation for 30 minutes after the jab and none of them reported any side effects.
UT health secretary Yashpal Garg said, “Corbevax vaccine has been made available for free in hospitals, and health and wellness centres across the city. We are also conducting meetings with government and private schools to start setting up vaccination camps on their premises to effectively cover maximum children.”
Urging children to come forward for vaccination, he said they could visit Centre’s CoWin web portal for prior registration or simply walk-in to any vaccination centre for on-the-spot registration and vaccination.
Mohali civil surgeon Dr Adarshpal Kaur said separate vaccination centres had been set up for this age group at all government hospitals in the district for a speedy process. She added that every eligible child should get vaccinated without wasting time to build immunity against the virus.
11 test positive for Covid
Tricity’s Covid-19 cases continued to remain around the 10 mark for the third consecutive day, as 11 people tested positive on Wednesday.
Both Chandigarh and Mohali recorded four infections each, while Panchkula confirmed three. On Tuesday, 10 people were found positive in the tricity, after 13 on Monday.
The cases dropped to single digit only on March 7 this year, when nine infections had surfaced. On Wednesday, the tricity also completed two whole weeks without any virus-related fatality.
Only Mohali has reported a Covid death this month so far – on March 2. The active cases also dropped to 102 from 104 in the past 24 hours. At 47, Chandigarh has the most infected patients, followed by Panchkula with 28 and Mohali with 27.
