Can register for vaccines from Jan, set to get Covaxin

Elderly with specified co-morbidities, and health and frontline workers can apply for the jabs from Jan 10

NEW DELHI: Children above 15 years of age, who become eligible for Covid-19 vaccination on January 3, can sign up from January 1 and will be given the Covaxin jab, the government said on Monday, since it is the only vaccine available in India that is approved by the World Health Organization for the 15-18 age group.

For senior citizens with specified co-morbidities, and health and front line workers, who become eligible for a third precautionary dose from January 10, there will have to be an interval of at least nine months, or 39 weeks, from the date of the second dose, the health ministry said in its operational guidelines.

The latest guidelines were issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded India’s vaccination programme in a televised announcement on December 25.

All those born on 2007 or earlier will be able to register from January 1 on the government’s COWIN portal, according to RS Sharma, chief executive of National Health Authority that oversees the COWIN system.

“The system is being modified accordingly,” he said.

“Students can make use of their ID cards for the purpose of registration.”

The eligible children will be given Covaxin as it has an emergency use listing by the global health agency, the ministry said.

India’s drugs regulator has also approved a second vaccine for use in ages 12 and above called ZYCOV-D, a dose made by Gujarat-based Zydus Healthcare. ZYCOV-D is yet to be included in the immunisation programme.

The elderly with co-morbidities, and health and front line workers will be able to apply for the third precautionary dose through their existing COWIN account, or at vaccination centres, the guidelines said.

The COWIN portal, the technological backbone of the country’s inoculation drive, will be suitably modified to send text messages to all applicants on their registered phone numbers once they become eligible. “The system will register if nine months from the second dose have been passed, both for people above 60 with co-morbidities, and health and front line workers,” Sharma said.

The move to expand India’s Covid-19 immunisation campaign came amid calls to strengthen the fight against new variants such as Omicron, which has shown a substantial drop in vaccine efficacy against symptomatic disease.

Protection against severe disease and hospitalisation is likely to remain durable.

The new variant of concern is highly transmissible but appears to be leading to milder illness.

But it has still raised fears that even a small proportion of serious cases in a large population of infected people will still be a high number that can swamp the health system.

The government’s decision to expand the campaign was based on the recommendations of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization, which advises the government on inoculation against all diseases, the health ministry said.

“It is a good decision to start vaccinating children against Covid-19 even though they may not run the risk of developing severe disease as commonly as adults, they can infect their family members, especially putting at risk the vulnerable population such as the elderly or those with some underlying medical condition. We will eventually have to vaccinate everyone,” said Dr Vikas Maurya, director and head of respiratory medicine department, Fortis Healthcare.

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