India to begin Covid vaccination for 12-14 age group from Wednesday
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New Delhi: India will start vaccinating children aged 12 to 14 years from March 16 as it expands its COVID-19 vaccination coverage, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Monday.
This comes after months of deliberations as the Centre expanded the vaccination programme to include another 6.5 crore children.
"The Union government, after due deliberations with scientific bodies, has decided to start the Covid-19 vaccination for 12-13 yr and 13-14 yr age groups (those born in 2008, 2009 and 2010 i.e. those who are already above 12) on 16th March 2022," the health ministry said in a press release.
The condition of co-morbidity for people aged 60 and above to get a precautionary dose will also be removed. Everyone in that age category can now take booster shots.
The COVID-19 vaccine to be administered would be Corbevax manufactured by Biological Evans, Hyderabad.
Making the announcement in Hindi on social media platform Koo, the minister said, "If the children are safe then the country is safe! I am happy to inform you that the COVID-19 vaccination of children in the age group of 12 to 13 and 13 to 14 is starting from March 16. Also, everyone aged 60+ will now be able to get precaution doses." He also urged the families of children and people in the age group of 60+ to get vaccinated.
All those above 14 years of age are already being vaccinated.
India began the world's largest vaccination programme in January last year. The first phase was for health workers and frontline workers, and the programme was then expanded to adults above 60 in March 2021, and then to all adults two months later. Amid concerns over new variants, the country began giving booster doses in January. For children, the vaccination for 15-18 age group began in January.