Things to keep in mind before taking your teen for Covid-19 vaccination

• The vaccination drive for children between the age of 15-18 will start from January 3.
• Zydus vaccine ZyCov-D has been approved for adolescents.
• Government will accept school ID cards for vaccination of teenagers, and aadhaar is not mandatory.

The vaccination drive for children between the age of 15-18 will open from January 3 (first money of 2022), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in his address on December 25.

Providing further clarification, RS Sharma, the chief executive of the National Authority and the chairperson of the empowered committee for CoWIN, said that the government will accept school ID cards for the vaccination of teens. So teenagers without an Aadhar Card will also be able to get vaccinated.

Sharma noted that the Zydus vaccine ZyCov-D has been approved for people between the age of 15-18. Adolescents can apply for the vaccination dose on the CoWin app. He also assured that the vaccine certificate is fully compliant with World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

ZyCoV-D is needle-free

Cadila Healthcare had received the emergency use authorisation (EUA) approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for the ZyCoV-D Covid-19 vaccine back in August. It was the fifth vaccine to be approved in India.

The vaccine is needle-free, unlike other vaccines. It is injected using a PharmaJet, a needle-free applicator that uses a narrow stream of the fluid to penetrate the skin and deliver the jab.

This is also a plasmid — a type of DNA found mostly in bacteria — which provides the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response mediated by the cellular and humoral arms of the human immune system.

“The Plasmid DNA platform also allows generating new constructs quickly to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring,” Cadila Healthcare, the manufacturer of the vaccine, had told the government.

A study of the first 183 cases in India showed that nine out of 10 cases with Omicron infections in India had received both the doses of Covid-19 vaccine. While the new variant is being reported to be more infectious, the symptoms are not severe.

According to the Prime Minister of India, more than 61% of India's adults have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. "We have 18 lakh isolation beds, 5 lakh oxygen beds, 1.4 lakh ICU beds, 90,000 beds reserved for children (including ICU and non-ICU beds) across the country," he added as the threat of the new Omicron variant is still a major concern.

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