TURN OF TEENS

After successfully inoculating the adult population to a large extent, the government now has gird up loins to administer vaccine jabs to teenagers having age between 15 to 18 years from January 3, 2022. This initiative and the one which the country took to vaccinate crores of citizens has placed the country among top nations which have shown exceptional performance in the combat against the coronavirus. As the slot bookings have been started there is dire need that teens should come forward and go for the vaccination on priority as already vaccine hesitant people have played spoilsport during the vaccination drive of the adult population. As the reports are pouring in, the infrastructure set up is ready to administer COVID vaccine shots to children. It has come to fore that a large number of schools and other educational institutions will also be used as COVID vaccination centres, and arrangements were being made there as well across the country. Registration has been started for teens aged between 15 and 18 years on the CoWIN portal and the vaccine option for them would only be Covaxin. It is worth mentioning that the vaccine option for those in the 15-18 age group has been stated under the ‘Guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to Health Care Workers, Front Line Workers and 60+ population with comorbidities’ as stated by the Union Health Ministry. The doctors have urged parents to bring their children for vaccination as soon as possible to ensure their protection amid fear of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, especially on account of new variant Omicron. Reportedly, the Omicron variant of the virus is infecting people and is spreading fast but those who are vaccinated are largely asymptomatic, and essentially the unvaccinated ones need hospitalization more. Therefore going for early vaccination is a good option and people should understand this as soon as possible to minimize the threat from Omicron. All said and done, there is another important point to be safe from the COVID-19 and its all mutants and that is observing COVID Appropriate Behaviour at all times.

Editorial editorial article 1