Guwahati: An estimated 70 children aged between 2 and 18 years in Assam will get a Covid vaccine, the state immunization office here on Tuesday.
Although the center has not officially communicated with the state to write a plan to vaccinate children, Nodal State of Covid Vaccination, Munindra Nath Nattey, told Ti that his office planned to vaccinate most of the children on the school campus itself.
Basic classes, where around 50 lakh children are registered in Assam, will be reopened on October 19 after this closed in April due to the second wave.
“The vaccination of children will be relatively easier.
Children between 2 and 15 years remain vaccinated with routine immunization and thus we can reach them easily.
In addition, because all school campuses are soon opened immediately, the rest can be vaccinated at school, “Ngatey said.
He said out of the total children who would be vaccinated, almost 80% of them were likely to be tracked at school.
However, government health facilities will be the first to offer vaccines, said Health Department officials.
About 12,000 Covid cases in the state are less than five years, while 55,000 are between 6 and 18 years.
Overall 67,000 cases are under 18 years and this accounts for 11% of the total cases.
“The SEC nod to manage Covaxin for children between 2-18 years is a big step in our fight against # Covid19.
This is a great pride that the Indian vaccine has led this & is proof of work of scientists & views in the future Adarniya PM Shri @ Narendramodi Ji, “CM Himanta Bustwa Sarma tweeted.
The SEC nod to manage Covaxin for children between 2-18 is a big step in our fight against # Covid19it …
https://t.co/CQ7UIICVHY- HIMANTA BUSWA SARMA (@Imantabiswa) 1634037110000 before launching a vaccine for children , The Ministry of Health, however, needs to be sensitive to the rural population, a large number that is always skeptical of a new vaccine in the state.
Especially in a minority belt, the Ministry of Health had to struggle to convince a large number of villagers at first to overcome vaccine doubts.
Several years ago, a large number of students in several schools managed by the government in the interior bags Assam-inhabited minorities such as Kamrup, Nalbari and Barpeta stopped going to school or taken by their guards following rumors of social media vaccines that could make them sterile.
At that time the vaccination of Japanese encephalitis was accelerated in the state, even though school was not related to any way.
During the fourth National Sero Survey for antibodies to the SARS-COV-2 published in July, the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) detected Sero’s prevalence in children is equivalent to adults in Assam.
Children between six and 14 years were found to have a similar sero prevalence in the range of 39.4% to 52.2%, as in adults.
It was warned that besides high-risk individuals such as parents and people with co-morbidity, children must take extra precautions to prevent infection.