Focus on destitute as govt widens the vaccine net for kids

Within 500 metres of the signal are two vaccination centres open for children her age, but Gunjan says that she cannot afford to lose a day’s earnings to get her Covid-19 vaccination.

Fifteen-year-old Gunjan holds a stack of books in one hand and her year-old brother in the other, waiting for the traffic signal at central Delhi’s Barakhamba Road crossing to turn red so that she can go around the vehicles, making her sale for the day.

Officials said the government will also increase the number of vaccination centres for teenagers, especially in localities where the number of registrations is higher. (Representational image) (PTI)

Within 500 metres of the signal are two vaccination centres open for children her age, but Gunjan says that she cannot afford to lose a day’s earnings to get her Covid-19 vaccination. “Also, I don’t have a mobile phone to register for vaccination. And I don’t have the time to go and get the shot, I have to be here through the day,” she says, when asked about vaccination.

With around 50% of eligible teenagers in the 15-18 age group vaccinated in the Capital since inoculations started on January 3 this year, senior officials from the health department said that they will now focus on homeless and out of school children like Gunjan to increase the vaccine coverage, with some help from resident welfare associations (RWA) and market associations.

Officials said the government will also increase the number of vaccination centres for teenagers, especially in localities where the number of registrations is higher.

Delhi government data shows that of the 1, 001,000 children in the 15-18 years age category in the Capital, first doses have been administered to 613,865.

Officials said that they are planning to conduct awareness drives with RWAs, market associations and citizen’s groups to bring underprivileged and street children around them to the nearest vaccination centres.

“...every day we are managing to immunise nearly 40,000 to 50,000 children. But now our focus is to get the underprivileged children because we know that children from upper and middle-class families will get access to the vaccine. These unaccounted children are also our responsibility,” said a senior health official.

Officials said that once the children are brought to the vaccination centres, government teams will help them get registered on the Co-WIN portal, administer their doses and follow up with them on their health post the shot.

Delhi government officials also said that they will now progressively increase the number of vaccination centres for teens. There are 220 vaccination centres for children in the Capital now, up from 159 when the vaccination started for children on January 3.

“There are some centres where we are getting 200-300 children every day, but there are also centres where, in an entire day, only five-six children turn up. While our strategy is to increase the centres, it will be need-based,” a senior government official said.

Experts said that involving the general public to get more children in the eligible age category to vaccination centres will be helpful.

“It is a good message that the government is sending. If a child under 18 in the neighbourhood has not received the jab yet, RWA representatives can get in touch with their parents and make arrangements to take them to the centres. This way we are also making our neighbourhoods safer because the more people around us get vaccinated, the less chance there is of a severe infection. The aim should be to push this as much as possible through awareness drives and social media campaigns,” said Anubhav Bhatt, co-founder of ‘Sarthi’, an NGO that works with street children in Delhi-NCR.