COVID-19 vaccine for children likely by October first week

In a boost to India's vaccination efforts, children aged 12 years and above may get the COVID-19 vaccine from the first week of October. There are about 120 million children in the age group of 12 to 17 years in the country.

As per the information, the vaccine will be first given to those children who are battling a serious disease.

The Covid Working Group has said that schools should be opened for the mental and physical development of children.

On the other hand, the government has decided to vaccinate the teachers of the schools on priority basis. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving priority to the vaccination of school teachers. In order to give priority in vaccination to teachers of all schools before the upcoming Teacher's Day, 5 September, the government has decided that an additional 2 crore vaccines will be provided every month in addition to the vaccines received by the states.

The extra doses of vaccines will be dispatched to the states from August 27 to 31, 2021.

"In addition to the plan to provide vaccine to every state this month, more than 2 crore vaccine doses are being made available. We have requested all the states to try to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers` Day, which is celebrated on 5th September," the Union Health Minister announced.

The states and UTs may use UDISE (Unified District Information System of Education) data and co-ordinate with State Education Departments, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan to provide necessary fillip to this vaccination programme.