BMC to hold special drives to expedite COVID-19 vaccination for children

To speed up child vaccination across the city, the BMC will hold special vaccination camps once a week at 212 vaccination centres for children from 12-17 years of age.

This comes after Mumbai lacks behind in vaccinating children compared to other districts of the state. Officials said still there is hesitancy toward the COVID vaccine amongst the parents due to which they are not coming forward to get their child vaccinated.

According to the figures, 5,48,364 children in the age group of 12-17 years have been administered with the first dose, which comes to only 5 per cent of the total children.

“To speed up the immunisation of children, the vaccination campaign will be conducted. A special camp will be held up at all the centres on one of the days in a week,” said executive health officer, Dr Mangala Gomare.

One of the paediatric task force members said they have spoken to paediatricians and held workshops for parents and teachers to drive home the importance of vaccination even among young people. “

Another reason behind low turnout is that parents do not have time to take their children to vaccination centres. In such circumstances, having a camp in schools will help. It should be organised class-wise. Children will see their friends getting the vaccine together,” the member said.

A doctor from the civic health department said, “We have been urging parents to come forward but with rumours circulating on social media, the drive has been impacted.

Meanwhile, cases have reduced so parents believe there is no need for vaccinating their children until it’s necessary.”

State immunisation officer said all the districts are doing their best to vaccinate children. However, there are few districts which have vaccinated less than 50 per cent of the first dose, which includes Mumbai. He said, “We have asked all district health officers to create more awareness about vaccination drives for children, which will help increase the number of beneficiaries. Moreover, we have also asked for door-to-door vaccination for teens."

Published on: Monday, July 11, 2022, 10:19 AM IST