Vaccination for 12-14 age group likely from March

New Delhi: Expanding the ambit of children's vaccination drive, the Union government is likely to begin inoculating 12-14-year-olds from March, Dr N K Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, said.

Of the estimated 7.4 crore (7,40,57,000) population in the 15-18 age bracket, over 3.45 crore have received the first dose of Covaxin so far and their second dose is due in 28 days. Once the 15-18 age group is covered, Dr Arora said, the government is likely to take a policy decision for initiating the vaccination drive for the 12-14 age group in March. According to him, there is an estimated 7.5 crore population in the 12-14 age group.

He elaborated that children aged 12 to 17 are quite like adults, so, the decision was mainly taken to protect the adolescents in the 15-17 group first.