With the Centre extending vaccination cover to allow those in the 12 to 14 age group to get inoculated against Covid-19, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to open 29 dedicated centres across the city to administer the jab to children starting Wednesday.
On March 14, Union government issued the directions to administer anti-Covid vaccine to children between 12 and 14 years of age.
“We have received 1.2 lakh doses and arrangements are being made across government-run hospitals and dispensaries for administering the vaccine,” Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant health chief, Pune circle, which includes Pune Satara and Solapur districts, said.
There are 5.92 lakh beneficiaries in the 12-14 age group in Pune of which 32 per cent are from the city, 21 per cent from Pimpri Chinchwad and 47 per cent from rural areas.
According to vaccination officer Dr Suryakant Deokar, there are an approximate 1.5 lakh beneficiaries in the age group in Pune city. “These are young kids and measures are being taken to ensure that they are safely vaccinated and monitored. The children will have to report to our hospitals and dispensaries according to the ward-wise locations and as per the protocol, they will be monitored for half-an-hour post-vaccination,” Dr Deokar said.
“Since this age group constitutes school going children, we will have to devise strategies to administer the vaccine on the school premises from next week,” Dr Deshmukh added.
The potential beneficiaries will be able to register in Co-win system to get the CorBEvax vaccine – the jab approved for the age group – from Wednesday. PMC will administer 50 per cent vaccine to those registered online while the other 50 per cent would be reserved for those going for on-spot registration. The beneficiaries will have to carry their Aadhaar cards at the vaccination centre.
Specially abled children would be given the vaccine dose on priority basis through on-spot registration process. “There are two vaccination centres in each of 14 ward offices area while one centre is in Shivajinagar-Ghole road ward office area,” said a civic health officer.
Bio E’s CorBEvax is administered in an intramuscular manner with each dose consisting of 0.5 ml of the vaccine. Two doses are administered at an interval of 28 days. The storage temperature for the vaccine is between 2 and 8 degree Celsius with a shelf life of 12 months.
As per the district health department data, at least 54 per cent of youngsters in the age group of 15 to 17 have been fully vaccinated by now.