Ghaziabad plans to vaccinate 144k in 12-15 group in 15 days

The vaccination for the 12-15 age group started on March 16 after the Union government decided to expand the Covid-19 vaccination programme

The Uttar Pradesh state health department has given Ghaziabad district a target of vaccinating 144,000 children in the 12-15 age group. The district health department officials said that they plan to vaccinate children in the given age group within a fortnight.

The vaccination drive is underway at Kailash Mansarovar Bhawan in Indirapuram and the District Combined Hospital at Sanjay Nagar. (HT archive)

The vaccination for the 12-15 age group started on March 16 after the Union government decided to expand the Covid-19 vaccination programme and said that Biological E’s anti-Covid vaccine Corbevax will be administered to children falling under the given age group. The Union government has placed an order of 50 million Corbevax vaccine doses.

“In this context, we have to achieve a target of vaccinating these children within a fortnight and at present we have 15 centres, which have given supply of Corbevax vaccines. Initially, we have received about 70,000 doses of the vaccine and regular supply will be received as and when required,” said Dr Sunil Tyagi, additional chief medical officer.

The 15 centres have been set up at community health centres in Loni, Dasna, Modinagar, Muradnagar and primary health centre (PHC) at Bhojpur while the other centres include urban PHC at Maharajpur, Raj Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Makanpur (Indirapuram), Raj Bagh, Saraswati Colony, Khoda and Vijay Nagar.

The vaccination drive is also underway at Kailash Mansarovar Bhawan in Indirapuram and the District Combined Hospital at Sanjay Nagar.

According to the figures of the CoWin portal, Ghaziabad district has vaccinated 787 children till Saturday evening.

“We expect the coverage to gather momentum with the Holi festival over. Starting next week, we will increase the coverage with the opening of more centres, including in schools. For this, we have contacted schools and camps will be set up on the same line as done for the other age group of 15-18 years,” Dr Tyagi added.

According to official figures, the district till Saturday evening, completed an overall administration of 58,45,034 doses, which include 32,11,749 first doses, 25,73,851 second doses and 59,434 precautionary doses.

The members of the parents’ association said that they are fully supportive of the vaccination drive and will urge parents to get their children vaccinated at the earliest.

“The schools have also opened up and the vaccination drives in schools will be a welcome step as Covid-19 cases have started to rise again in a few foreign countries. There are many parents who are still not ready to send their children to school due to the fear of the virus. We will make sure that the vaccination coverage is 100% and children are able to attend their classes without fear,” said Vivek Tyagi, a spokesperson of the Ghaziabad Parents’ Association.