Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 3: As India took a major leap forward on Monday towards protecting its citizens against Coronavirus infections by launching vaccination of the senior teens, the vaccine task force declared the country to be in the grip of third wave with major cities reporting 75 per cent cases to be of highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Over 40 lakh young ones in the age group of 15 to 18 got their first dose on Day one on Monday as the vaccination opened for them for the first time, the health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi this evening tweeted, “Today we have taken an important step forward in protecting our youth against COVID-19. Congrats to all my young friends between the age group of 15-18 who got vaccinated. Congrats to their parents as well. I would urge more youngsters to get vaccinated in the coming days! (sic)”
“Well done Young India! Over 40 lakhs between 15-18 age group received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the 1st day of vaccination drive for children, till 8 PM. This is another feather in the cap of India’s vaccination drive,” the Health Minister tweeted.
The vaccination drive for the teens was carried out in consultation with schools at hospitals and health centres. A large number of schools and other educational institutions were used as vaccination centres as well. The Union Health Ministry had announced that only Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin would be administered to eligible children — in two doses 28 days apart.
India on Monday reported 33,750 fresh Covid-19 cases and 123 deaths. With 10,846 recoveries, the country’s active caseload stood at 1,45,582. According to the Union Ministry of Health, the Omicron tally in the country has reached 1,700, of which 639 have recovered or been discharged. Maharashtra topped the count with 510 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi with 351 cases.
Delhi, which has been witnessing a steady rise in Covid-19 cases, reported 4,099 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate to 6.46% from 4.59% a day ago. One more person died out of the infection. Mumbai, on the other hand recorded 7,928 fresh Covid-19 cases pushing the test positivity rate of 16.39 per cent. The city also recorded two related deaths in the past 24 hours, a BMC health bulletin said.
In Pune, 40 centres have Covaxin doses, whereas Delhi has set up 159 government-run centres for the age group. In Mumbai, vaccination for children will be carried out at nine jumbo centres.
A large chunk of Omicron cases was reported from the big cities as the country faces a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The head of the country’s vaccine task force DR NK Arora said the third wave of the pandemic “is very much here.”
Large cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata have a combined 75 per cent share of infections of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant Omicron that was first detected in South Africa in November, Dr Arora, Chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, or NTAGI, who has been very closely involved with the rollout of vaccines from the very onset, said.
“Look at whatever the variants have been genome sequenced… We got our first virus right in the first week of December. So, last week, nationally overall, 12 per cent of the variants identified were Omicron and the week gone by in the previous week, it has increased to 28 per cent. So, it is rapidly increasing as a proportion of all the Covid infections in the country. Now, having said that, I must also say something more important and that is that around the major metro cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and particularly Delhi, it is over 75 per cent of all the isolates now,” said Dr Arora.
India has so far reported 1,700 Omicron cases, with Maharashtra reporting the most number of infections at 510. The country also saw a 22 per cent jump in new COVID-19 cases, government data this morning showed. Dr Arora said “the third wave of the pandemic is very much here.”
“India is clearly in the third wave of COVID-19. And the whole wave seems to be driven by a new variant and today it is Omicron,” Dr Arora said adding this was supported by evidence from the last four-five days that saw “galloping increase in the number of cases.”
On another significant point, Dr Arora dismissed concerns that vaccines being given to 15-18 age groupcould be unsafe as the doses had their shelf-life extended. “It is absolutely safe. See, initially when the vaccines were being produced, the overall shelf-life issues were available only for that period when the studies were being done. Now, today, with the experience and the time, since when the vaccine was produced, the shelf-life has been evaluated through various animal studies. And it clearly shows that the vaccine is effective and active potency is maintained up to 12 months,” Dr Arora said. Pharma firm Bharat Biotech was allowed to extend the shelf-life of Covaxin by India’s drugs regulator on December 20.
Those born in 2007 and before are eligible for the vaccine. Chief Ministers of several states launched the teen vaccine drives. The Union Health Ministry has said only Covaxin would be administered to teens and additional doses of the vaccine would be sent to all states and Union Territories.
On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that vaccination for the 15-18-year age group will begin from January 3. The administration of the third dose of vaccine for health workers, frontline workers and vulnerable senior citizens will begin from January 10.
The clearance from the government came amid a threat of growing cases of Omicron, the highly infectious variant that is sweeping Europe and the US, replacing Delta as the dominant strain. Since schools and colleges have opened earlier this year, a substantial section of children and teens have contracted the virus. Several outbreaks have been reported from residential schools and college hostels.
The government is yet to take a decision on the booster dose for all. Two new vaccines — Corbevax and Covovax – have received clearance and may be used as booster doses. Sources said the new vaccines might be considered for the use of children as well.
Meanwhile, amid rapidly rising cases of Covid-19, physical attendance of government servants below level of under secretary has been restricted to 50 per cent. Persons with disabilities and pregnant women employees have also been exempted from attending office.
The Election Commission of India has written to the chief secretaries of five poll-bound states, asking them to “accelerate” the pace of vaccination. The poll panel also expressed concerns over the low percentage of first dose coverage in Manipur.
This comes after the Commission had at a press conference in Lucknow last week emphasized on the need to speed up vaccination in poll-bound states, EC officials said. At the press meet, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said that EC had asked states to take steps to step up vaccination coverage.
Elections are scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur this year.