Vax for children: Centres to come up at Chandigarh schools

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 29

Amid the third wave fears, the UT Administration has decided to set up special vaccination centres in schools apart from six hospitals for children in the age group of 15-18 years. The UT received 93,000 doses of Covaxin, which will be given to the children, today. The second dose of Covaxin is administered after a gap of 28 days.

Nearly 1.32 lakh doses of Covishield are in stock and 93,000 more doses were received today.

UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg said registration on the Co-WIN portal could be made from January 1 and vaccination would start from January 3 for nearly 72,000 eligible children in the city.

“To avoid any confusion with the ongoing vaccination, separate centres will be set up to inoculate children,” he said.

Garg said dedicated vaccination centres for children would be set up at the PGI, the GMCH-32, the GMSH-16 and the civil hospitals at Mani Majra, Sector 22 and Sector 45. Preference would be given to those who booked slots online. Subject to availability of vacant slots, walk-in registrations would also be allowed at these centres, said Garg.

He said special vaccination centres would be set up at Government Senior Secondary School, Dhanas, Government Model High School, RC-II, Maloya, and Government Model Senior Secondary School, Modern Housing Complex, Mani Majra. A special vaccination centre exclusively for eligible girls would be set up at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 20-B, he added.

These centres would be functional from January 3, where walk-in registration would be allowed to eligible children whether enrolled in a school or not, he said.

As schools would reopen on January 10 after the winter vacations, the Director, School Education, was asked to chalk out a schedule for holding vaccination camps in each school, both government and private, where students eligible for vaccination are enrolled.

Garg said the Director, Social Welfare, was to prepare a list of eligible children in different Homes of the Social Welfare Department so that health teams could carry out vaccination there. He, however, clarified that there would be no vaccination at doorstep for children.

15K senior citizens have comorbidities

The UT has 15,600 people with comorbidities in the 60-plus age group. A gap of nine months (39 weeks) is required from the date of administration of the second dose to get the precaution dose by health workers, frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities.

Dedicated vaccination centres for children

PGI

GMCH-32

GMSH-16

Civil Hospital, Mani Majra

Civil Hospital, Sector 22

Civil Hospital, Sector 45

Govt Senior Secondary School, Dhanas

Govt Model High School, RC-Il, Maloya

Govt Model Senior Secondary School, MHC, Mani Majra

Govt Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 20-B, (for girls only)