Mysuru District has a total of 1,37,459 kids in this group: DHO

Mysore/Mysuru: “Children play a major role in nation-building. Today’s youths are tomorrow’s future,” said MLA S.A. Ramdas after launching the vaccination drive for children in the age group of 12 to 14 years at Seth Mohandas Tulsidas (SMT) Hospital on JLB Road in city this morning.

“Vaccination for those above 60 years, 45 years, 18 years and 15 years were administered successfully. Now, it is time to vaccinate children aged 12 to 14 years,” he said adding that Corbevax vaccine is given for this age group from today. Hundreds of students from various schools received the jab.

Pointing out that the safety of the children is very important, the MLA said that getting the childrenvaccinated is the most important duty of all the parents. The school teachers too must make sure the children receive their jabs so as to build a healthy nation, he opined.

District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. K.H. Prasad, who also spoke, said that “The district-level vaccination drive has been launched successfully today. So far, 51.44 lakh COVID vaccine doses have been administered to people of all age groups above 15 years in Mysuru District — that is, 25.95 lakh people have received their first dose (100.47 percent); 24.78 lakh people have received the second dose (96 percent) and 69,359 people have got precautionary dose,” he said.

“Starting from today children between 12 and 14 years will be administered Corbevax vaccine. There are about 39,521 children in this age group in Mysuru city and a total of 1,37,459 in Mysuru District,” the DHO said.

“Keeping in mind the health of the children, the vaccine will be administered to them in phases within 15 to 30 days. The vaccination will be provided at all the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Hospitals following the Government guidelines. After one week, the health workers of the District Health Department will visit all the schools and vaccinate the remaining children,” Dr. Prasad said.

MUDA Chairman H.V Rajeev, Corporator Pallavi Begum, Zilla Panchayat (ZP) CEO B.R. Poornima, DDPI (Deputy Director of Public Instruction) Ramachandra Raje Urs, Block Education Officer (BEO) Ramaradhya, Reproductive and Child Health Officer (RCHO) Dr. M.S. Jayanth and others were present on the occasion.

Government Guidelines

The Central and State Governments have released guidelines for Covid-19 vaccination of children between 12 and 14 years yesterday.  The vaccine of choice for children is Corbevax, which is India’s first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) Protein sub-unit vaccine against COVID-19. Based on the National Technical Advisory Body on Immunisation (NTAGI) advice, the Government is all set to administer vaccines to children of age group 12 to 14 years starting from today.

The guidelines read that the vaccine will be administered through an intramuscular route with two doses scheduled 28 days apart and will be stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius temperature and presented as 0.5 ml (single dose) and 5 ml (10 doses) vial and 10 ml (20 doses) vial pack.

The registration can be done through the following modes — self-registration through an existing account on Co-WIN portal of a family member or by creating a new account through a unique mobile number beginning at 9 am today.  It can also be done through onsite registration by the vaccinator in facilitated registration mode and appointments can be booked online or onsite (walk-in). 

Relevant documents like children’s student ID, Aadhaar Card must be carried compulsory while getting their jabs and parents mobile number details must be provided.

The precaution dose will also be provided to all persons aged 60 years and above. The doses will be administered 39 weeks from the date of receiving the second dose, the guidelines stated.

Taluk-wise COVID-19 vaccination target

Sl. no	Block Name	No. of Beneficiaries
1.	Mysuru Rural	24,527
2.	Mysuru Urban	39,521
3.	T. Narasipur	11,640
4.	Nanjangud	16,268
5.	Hunsur	13,620
6.	H.D. Kote	11,785
7.	Periyapatna	10,658
8.	K.R. Nagar	9,440
	Total	1,37,459