The Bengal government is considering vaccinating children aged between 15 and 18 in their schools, an official in the state health department said on Tuesday.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which is coordinating the Covid vaccination drive in the city, will make the necessary preparations to vaccinate students of private as well as government schools, said a civic official.
The state government also wants to administer the first dose to all eligible children within a month from January 3, the day the vaccination of this group begins across the country.
A guideline issued by the Union health ministry on Monday says the children in the 15-18 age group will be given Covaxin.
“We are considering using the school premises to vaccinate the students. We will organise camps in schools to vaccinate this age group. We have planned to complete administering the first dose to the children within a month,” said Narayan Swaroop Nigam, Bengal health secretary.
Officials of the health and school education departments and the commissioner of the KMC discussed the modalities of vaccinating eligible children at a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
Nigam had earlier said about 45 lakh individuals in the 15-18 age group would need to be vaccinated in the state. “It would effectively be the 15-17 age group as those who are 18 were eligible to take the vaccine earlier, too,” he had said.
KMC officials said they would be ready to vaccinate students in government-run schools as well as private institutions.
“We had earlier conducted vaccination for children against Japanese Encephalitis in schools. Most private schools then did not show interest in participating in the KMC’s drive. We have the capacity to organise camps in both private and government schools,” the KMC official said.
“If private schools are willing, we will organise Covid vaccination camps on their premises, too.”
The health department wants the initial vaccination of school students to be done in their schools. “Initially, we want to vaccinate the 15-18 age group on their school premises because they will be given only Covaxin. Most vaccination centres in the state are administering Covishield. If the children are required to visit regular vaccination centres for the jab, that will lead to queues. There is also the risk of getting exposed to the virus at those centres because of the crowds,” said a health department official.
A coordination meeting on children’s vaccination, involving the KMC, school education department and the health department, will be held on Wednesday.