Video and Pictures: COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 15-18 years kicks off in Mumbai

As the state stands on the threshold of a 'third wave' of Covid-19, lakhs of school and junior college children in the 15-18 age enthusiastically thronged vaccination centres to get their jabs in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, officials said here on Monday.

As per the Centre's policy, the government launched the inoculation drive for the 15-18 age groups and over 8,00,000 have already registered for their dose in the past few days.

Since dawn, the children, many sporting their school uniforms, lugging school bags, clutching their I-cards and other necessary documents, made a beeline at the vaccination centres in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other cities, towns and villages.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray exhorted children to go for their doses, while at many centres there were VIPs waiting to welcome the kids, like Health Minister Rajesh Tope in Jalna, Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray and Mayor Kishori Pednekar in Mumbai, other ministers in other districts, parliamentarians or legislators in different areas.

Some big schools in the urban centres have decided to arrange the vaccination drive at their own campuses to ensure all the children in the 15-18 age group are covered.

At several centres, excited and giggling young boys and girls arrived either with their families or neighbours or friends, eagerly awaiting the experience of a Covid-19 dose, and they urged their reluctant pals or classmates to join them.

"There is apprehension among us as the Covid-19 and Omicron cases have suddenly increased... We all have taken our parents' and teachers' advice to register and take the precautionary jab when called," said Manthan Joshi, an SSC student of Gokhale High School in Borivali.

In Mumbai, the doses are being administered at the 9 Jumbo vaccination centres across the city and suburbs. They are the Richardson & Cruddas, Byculla and Mulund, Somaiya Grounds, Sion, NSCI Dome, Crompton & Greaves, Kanjurmarg, Worli, NESCO Centre Goregaon, Malad Centre, Malad, and Dahisar Centre, Dahisar.

PM Modi on December 25, 2021, had announced that the vaccination for the age-group 15-18 years is scheduled to begin from Monday while administration of precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10, 2022.

In the context of the vaccination of the age group 15-18 years, the Union Health Secretary informed the States and UTs that only 'Covaxin' is to be administered in this population category and additional doses of 'Covaxin' will be sent to all states and UTs.

Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category.

Meanwhile, Mumbai recorded a steep rise in the daily coronavirus cases with 8,063 infections on Sunday, 1,763 more than Saturday's tally, taking the caseload in the metropolis to 7,99,520, the city civic body said in a bulletin.

BMC data showed the city had reported 809 cases on December 27, which meant the tally jumped by almost 10 times as on Sunday.

The city did not see any death during the day due to the infection, keeping the toll unchanged at 16,377, it said, adding that 89 per cent of the cases reported, or 7,176, are asymptomatic.

(With agency inputs)