The Department of Health and Family Welfare is all set for the roll out of vaccination for those aged between 15 and 18 years, with the Centre announcing vaccination for the teens. This comes amidst the threat of a spike in cases from Omicron variant of COVID-19 whose numbers are on the rise in the country.
As many as 1.47 lakh beneficiaries – school and college students put together – have been identified based on the data sourced from the Departments of Public Instruction and Pre-University Education. The entire vaccination drive will be done only in schools and colleges and as many as 400 teams will carry out the task.
Mysuru district has around 1,500 schools and colleges. The district administration had a meeting ahead of the roll out collecting the statistics from the departments on the numbers.
Mysuru also got fresh stocks of Covaxin, the vaccine that has been approved for administering to the age group.
District Health Officer K.H. Prasad told The Hindu that the idea is to carry out vaccination in each school and college simultaneously. “If this is achieved as planned, we are in a position to vaccinate the population in a span of five days. We are yet to finalise the schedule and the teams had discussions with the staff of the departments. Another 30,000-plus students are expected to be added to the list and the final list would be ready by Saturday.”
The DHO said around 2 lakh doses are available in the district. Vaccine is not an issue as more stocks are expected in the days ahead. The vaccination drive will be launched on January 3 at Maharani’s College at 8.30 a.m.
On the proof of identity for the vaccination, he said the schools are being asked whether the students can get their parents’ phones for receiving the OTPs for facilitating immunisation. If they cannot bring the phones, then we will consider alternative methods to ensure the vaccination as registration is a must in the CoWIN portal.
In Mysuru district, 84 per cent of people have got their second dose. In November this year, vaccine hesitancy had worried the district administration as over two lakh people were found to have skipped their second dose of vaccination for no reason after completing 84-day gap from the first dose. As many as one lakh people who are delaying their second dose are from Mysuru city alone. There used to be long queues before the vaccination centers here barely a few months ago but now people are not ready to take their second dose even though the health workers are going to their doorsteps to vaccinate them.
However, after the Omicron threat and decision on making vaccination certificates mandatory, the vaccination got some pace, narrowing the gap of those who missed the second dose. Now the number of people who need to take their second dose has come down to one lakh from 2 lakh, he said.
