COVID-19 vaccination | Centre issues guidelines for children aged 15-18, precaution doses

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The union home ministry on December 27 issued guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 15-18 years and for the administration of booster dose to healthcare, frontline workers, and senior citizens with co-morbidity.

"For those Health Care Workers (HCWs) & Frontline Workers (FLWs) who have received two doses, another dose of COVID-19 vaccine would be provided from January 10," the ministry said in its guidelines.

"The prioritization & sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months from the date of administration of 2nd dose reads the guidelines," it said.

"Covid vaccination of children in the age group of 15-18 years to be started from 3rd January 2022. For such beneficiaries, vaccination option would be Covaxin only," the guidelines stated.

This comes after PM  Narendra Modi in his national address on December 25 announced that India will start vaccinating kids aged above 15 years from January 3, 2022.

Also Read: School ID cards of children will be accepted for vaccination: CoWIN's RS Sharma

The guidelines will come effect from January 3 and will be reviewed from time to time, it stated.

Here are some COWIN features and provisions for HCW, FLW and citizens 60+ with comorbidities :

1. All HCWs, FLWs and citizens aged 60 years or above with comorbidities will be able to access the vaccination for precaution dose through their existing CO-Win account.
2.  Eligibility of such beneficiaries for the precaution dose will be based of the date of administration of 2nd dose as recorded in the COWIN platform.
3. COWIN system will send SMS to such beneficiaries for availing the precaution dose when the dose becomes due.
4. Registration and appointment services can be accessed through both, the online and the onsite modes.
5. The details of administration of the precaution dose will be suitably reflected in the vaccination certificates.

1. All those aged 15 years or more will be able to register on CO-WIN. In other words, all those whose birth year is 2007 or before , shall be eligible.
2. Beneficiaries can self-register online through an existing account on CO-WIN or can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number, this facility is available for all eligible citizens presently.
3. Such beneficiaries can also be registered onsite by the verifier/vaccinator in facilitated registration mode.
4. Appointments can be booked online or on-site (walk-in).
5. For such beneficiaries, option for vaccination would only be available for Covaxin as this is the only vaccine with EUL for the age groups 15-17.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 141 crore, according to the health ministry. A stock of four to five crore vaccine doses of Covaxin are available with states and union territories.