New Delhi, January 1: In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement on Christmas, registrations for vaccinating 15-18-year-old children against COVID-19 starts from Saturday on the Co-WIN portal.

"Let's get ready to ensure COVID vaccination of all eligible citizens. Registrations on #CoWIN for 15-18 year old children starts from 1st January 2022. #LargestVaccineDrive #Unite2FightCorona," tweeted the Ministry of Health on Friday.

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As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25, 2021, the vaccination for the age-group 15-18 years is scheduled to begin from Monday while administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10, 2022.

In the context of the vaccination of the age group 15-18 years, the Union Health Secretary informed the States/UTs that only 'Covaxin' is to be administered in this population category and additional doses of 'Covaxin' will be sent to all states and UTs.

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Union Government will share the supply schedule of 'Covaxin' with all the States and UTs in the next few days. Potential beneficiaries can either register themselves on Co-WIN from January 1, 2022, or avail of a walk-in registration when vaccination commences from January 3. Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category.

All established protocols regarding vaccination are to be followed for the 15-18 years age group; beneficiaries are to wait for half an hour when they will be monitored for the adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and will be eligible for the second dose only after 28 days.

States were informed that they have the option to designate some COVID vaccination centre (CVC)s as dedicated CVC for the 15-18 age group exclusively which can also be reflected on Co-WIN. Dedicated CVCs would ensure that there is no confusion in administering the vaccines. For CVCs that are intended to serve categories in addition to the 15-18 age group, the states were requested to ensure separate queues for the 15-18 age group and separate vaccination teams. States were advised to form two separate vaccination teams at the same CVC, one for 15-18 age groups and the other for all adults to avoid confusion in the administration of the right vaccines.

With regard to the administration of the precautionary dose, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan highlighted that nine months (39 weeks) must have elapsed since the administration of the second dose to make the beneficiary eligible.

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