Covid-19: Over 1.51 lakh teens vaccinated in Haryana in two days

Over 1.51 lakh teenagers were administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Haryana in the first two days of the drive to inoculate children in the age group of 15 to 18, officials said on Tuesday.

Around 15.40 lakh teens in the state are eligible to receive the jab, they said.

"We propose to substantially cover them by January 10 when the next round (precaution dose) starts for healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60," Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Rajeev Arora said.

As many as 1,51,503 beneficiaries in the 15-18 age category have received the vaccine, including 96,524 on Tuesday alone, Arora said.

On Tuesday, 10,618 children were vaccinated in Hisar district, the highest in the state, followed by 10,063 in Panipat, 9,048 in Yamunanagar, 8,146 in Ambala, 7,444 in Kaithal and 7,356 in Gurugram, he said.

Among other districts, 5,774 children received the jab in Karnal district, 4,938 in Palwal, 3,527 in Faridabad, 3,298 in Rewari, 3,072 in Bhiwani and 3,060 in Sonipat, Arora said.

Health Minister Anil Vij said the department will make arrangements to inoculate children in schools.

The process to vaccinate teenagers has commenced amid a scare of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

In Haryana, daily COVID-19 cases have been on the rise for over a week.

The Drugs Controller General of India had granted emergency use authorisation to indigenously developed Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children above 12 with certain conditions on December 24.

Haryana Health Minister Vij had earlier directed his department to provide separate vaccination session sites, queues and if possible separate centres and vaccination teams for this age group.

Registration for this category of beneficiaries had opened on Saturday.

According to guidelines, they can self-register online through an existing account on CoWIN or by creating a new account through a unique mobile number as is the case with all other categories of beneficiaries.