LUCKNOW: Vaccination for children in the age group of 12 to 14 years began on March 16 but has seen lacklustre response. It has been moving at snail’s pace for a month and statistics show that only 17% of the target in children’s vaccination has been achieved by the health department in Lucknow till now.
Indigenously produced Corbevax vaccine is being administered to children. The gap between two doses of the vaccine is 28 days, which means that data corresponds to only partial vaccination.
According to government data, from March 16 to April 13, 34,106 children in the age bracket of 12 to 14 years had been vaccinated in Lucknow. On the whole, 1,94,424 children born between January 1, 2008 and March 15, 2010 are eligible for the process. However, only about 17% have benefited as yet.
Experts say the reasons revolve around the lack of awareness and people’s perception that Covid-19 has ended as a disease. Additionally, TOI has found another reason behind the low vaccination rate.
One vaccine vial contains 20 doses and after it is opened, it should be consumed within four hours, else it gets wasted. However, children have been visiting vaccination centres in sporadic numbers—one or two at a time—which brings the concern of wastage.
“We need 10 to 12 kids per day to come in for one vial of vaccine to be consumed. If we open the vial for a single child and there is no other beneficiary coming in, it leads to wastage, which one cannot afford to do,” explained the nodal officer for vaccination at SPM Civil hospital Dr NB Singh.
“There is a lack of awareness for children’s vaccine which is why there is little or no excitement to receive it. Earlier we used to vaccinate 1500 adults a day but now that has reduced to a mere 100-200 adults. In the kids category, the response is worse, some days the vaccine vial does not even get to be opened,” he added.
While healthcare professionals avoid wastage, some children who turn up for the drive either have to wait for hours or simply return without getting a dose as there aren’t enough beneficiaries.
“Vaccination in the previous months was high because people were panicking and eager to take it. For children’s vaccination, we want to make sure there is little or no wastage of the dose. We are working on a plan to increase children’s vaccination,” said district immunisation officer Dr MK Singh.
