AP Prepares For Vaccination of Children, Precautionary Doses For Frontline Workers, Senior Citizens

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh State government is in the process of making preparations for the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it receives guidelines from the Central government in this regard. On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the vaccine would be distributed to those under 15 to 18 years of age from January 3. The Centre announced that children between 15 to 18 years will be inoculated starting from January 3 and precaution doses for frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities will be starting from January 10.

State medical and health officials are awaiting the guidelines for the distribution of vaccines for those under 15–18 years of age which is likely to be released on Monday or Tuesday.

So far the State government has administered two doses of vaccine to 4,91,318 healthcare workers and 15,53,283 frontline workers in other departments in the state.

There are over 50 lakh elderly people above 60 years of age. It is estimated that children under the age of 15 to 18  will be over 50 lakhs in number.

Katamneni Bhaskar, Commissioner and Mission Director for National Health Mission at the Department of Medical, Health & Family Welfare, said that once the guidelines are received, State medical officials will start the vaccination drives. As there was no problem in the vaccine availability, the delivery of doses would happen faster, he clarified.

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