90,531 children jabbed against Covid in Himachal on day 1

Tribune News Service

Shimla/Mandi, January 3

The campaign to vaccinate children in the 15-18 age group got off to a flying start with 90,531 children taking the jab on the first day. Given that the Health Department had planned to vaccinate about 30,000 to 40,000 children per day, the high turnout has come as a pleasant surprise for them. “It shows people were anxiously waiting for the vaccination to begin for children. It makes perfect sense to get your children vaccinated soon as the threat of Omicron is round the corner,” said Secretary Health Amitabh Awasthi.

Incidentally, health officials were expecting hesitancy from parents, at least in the first few days of the campaign. “We thought the campaign will take a few days to pick up pace. However, the first day numbers show there will be no problem in vaccinating this group,” said Awasthi.

The maximum doses were administered in Kangra, with as many as 20,895 children taking the jab. Mandi and Kullu took the second and third spot on the list with 14,429 and 10,804 doses. Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti recorded the lowest vaccination with 423 and 283 doses, respectively.

The state has indentified around 4.5 lakh beneficiaries in this category, and has set a deadline of January 15 to vaccinate all of them.

Earlier, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today launched the statewide Covid-19 vaccination campaign for children belonging to the age group of 15-18 years at Government Vijay Senior Secondary School (Boys). Mandi. Ravi Kumar, a Class XII student of the school, was the first to get jabbed.

Later, while interacting with mediapersons, the Chief Minister appealed to the people to come forward for their inoculation. In Himachal Pradesh, about 3.57 lakh children in the age group of 15-18 years would be administered the vaccine.

Thakur said as many as 4,259 educational institutions (2,801 government and 1,402 private schools and 56 other institutions) would be covered under the campaign. The government was keeping an eye on new variants Delta and Omicron and all preventative measures would be taken to check their spread, he added.

Dr Sadhna Thakur, Chief Minister’s wife, MLAs Anil Sharma, Rakesh Jamwal and Inder Singh Gandhi, Mandi Mayor Deepali Jaswal, Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary, SP Shalini Agnihotri, CMO Dr Devender Sharma were present on the occasion.

Chamba: Deputy Commissioner DC Rana on Monday started the Covid vaccination campaign from Government Boys’ Senior Secondary School here.

A total of 48 vaccination centres had been established in the district mainly in schools, polytechnic institutes and ITIs had been identified. Students who could not come to school due to any reason or pupils of schools closed for the winter break must visit their nearest vaccination centre to get inoculated, he added.