Covid-19: 6,115 teens vaccinated on Day 1 in Mumbai

A student is administered Covaxin vaccine at Richardson and Cruddas jumbo centre, Byculla, on Monday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

On Day 1 of the Covid-19 immunisation programme for 15-17-year-olds, the public and private centres combined vaccinated 6,115 youngsters. The vaccination drive was held at 35 facilities, including the city's nine jumbo centres. While 4,954 children received their vaccine at civic-run and government centres, 1,161 were vaccinated at private facilities. Currently, only Covaxin is being administered to the youngsters.

The BMC has set a target of vaccinating 9 lakh children in the age group within 28 days. That would mean administering 35,000 doses daily. The gap between two doses of Covaxin is four weeks. "We will try to immunise 9 lakh children within the next 28 days so that the second dose can be given after that. The vaccine will provide security against the variants of Coronavirus," said Suresh Kakani, BMC's additional commissioner.

On Day 1, BMC centres started the vaccination drive at 11 am. While inaugurating the drive, Aaditya Thackeray, the guardian minister of Mumbai Suburban, said, "It will be too early to predict anything about Omicron. People should take precautions. Though hospital beds are available, our aim has to stay away from beds. "We were constantly following up with the Centre for the vaccination of children. It is important to keep schools and colleges open. Despite the decision about schools, the vaccination should be done," he added.

35,000
No. of kids need to be vaccinated daily, as per the BMC's target