Covid vaccination of 12-15 age group picks pace after slow start in Nuh district

So far, 297 children in the age group have been vaccinated since the drive started on March 16,with only 86 taking the first dose in the first five days, said the officials

The pace of Covid-19 vaccination for children in the 12-15 age group picked up in Nuh district on Monday after remaining sluggish for almost a week, with 211 children getting their first dose, officials said.

A teenager in the 12-15 age group is being administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine ‘Corbevax’, in Gurugram on Monday. (Vipin Kumar /HT PHOTO)

So far, 297 children in the age group have been vaccinated since the drive started on March 16,with only 86 taking the first dose in the first five days. Officials said 20 children were vaccinated on Day 1, and no child in this age group was vaccinated on Sunday.

Dr Surender Kumar Yadav, chief medical officer of Nuh district, said, “Vaccination in the 12-15 age group has been slow in the district so far. During the weekend, fewer people showed up because of Holi and the fact that schools were closed for four days because of that, but we are also noticing that people are again reluctant to take the vaccine as Covid-19 cases have come down. This is not just the case in this age group, but for precautionary doses for those above 60 and second doses in the 15-18 age group too.”

Before vaccination for the 12-15 age group started last week, Nuh was given 10,000 doses of Corbevax, but the authorities are yet to figure out the eligible population in the district. Meanwhile, the health department is also planning to set up vaccination camps in schools for maximum reach.

“We have not received the exact number of children in this age group in the district from the education department yet, so we have decided to start a door-to-door survey by ASHA workers. The numbers from the education department will be used as a base, but the survey is important as the dropout rate among students is very high, along with absenteeism. So, ASHA workers will go door-to-door to motivate families to get their children vaccinated at the earliest,” said the chief medical officer.

Officials said in the 15-18 age group, the district had set a target of vaccinating 150,000 children but only over 42,000 have been vaccinated so far. Vaccination for the 15-18 age group had started on January 3.

The CMO said that when vaccination for the 15-18 age group had started, over 500 children were vaccinated in the first week itself.

“The vaccination campaign for the 15-18 age group and booster doses had started before the peak of the third wave, so people were still a little scared as cases were being reported daily. Many residents knew about some relative or neighbour who tested positive for Covid-19. Along with this, the state government had issued guidelines that only vaccinated people would be allowed in public places, so residents came forward to get vaccinated, but now people have again become lax and we are trying to motivate them to both the doses,” added Yadav.

Meanwhile in Gurugram, after a few slow days, 4,182 children in the 12-15 age group got the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19 on Monday. A total of 545 children in the 15-18 age group were vaccinated in Gurugram on Monday of whom 159 received their first dose and 386 received their second dose.

A total of 6,386 doses were administered on Monday, including 4,548 first doses, 1,399 second doses and 439 booster doses. With this, over 5.01 million doses have been administered in the Gurugram district till now.

On Monday, Gurugram recorded 47 fresh Covid-19 cases along with 104 recoveries. The district now has 234 active cases with a positivity rate of 1.15%.