By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 27, 2021: Odisha government is gearing up for vaccinating over 25 lakh children in the age group of 15-18 years against COVID-19.

Director of Family Welfare and state vaccination in-charge Dr Bijay Panigrahi said registration for 25.53 lakh children will soon begin on the COWIN portal.

Camps will be held in schools and colleges for the vaccination drive, he said.

“We are yet to receive the guidelines on the type of vaccine and number of doses to be administered to them. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted emergency use authorisation to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D for children above 12 years,” Panigrahi said.

“We are well prepared for the vaccination exercise, but await the official guidelines to take a decision on how to go about it,” he said.

He also said over seven lakh frontline workers will be administered booster doses.

There are 52.37 lakh people in the 60-plus age group, but only those with comorbidities will be able to take the third dose, he said.

Panigrahi said about 29 lakh people in the state haven’t taken the first dose yet.

Over 2.89 crore people in Odisha have so far been inoculated with the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 1.98 crore beneficiaries received both the jabs.