1.38 lakh children across Gujarat get Corbevax on Day 1

According to Jodhpur UHC medical officer Dr Devyani Shastri, vaccination certificates will be generated by the end of the day. Principals of schools where the drive was held were instructed to apprise the UHC officials by Thursday about students who do not receive the certificate.

In the Gujarat state board-affiliated Kameshwar School at Jodhpur in Ahmedabad, where around 200 doses of Corbevax were administered, 185 doses were recorded online on CoWIN with others eligible beneficiaries awaiting official entries owing to lack of ID proof documents.

Ansh Kapadia (14) of Class 8 said half of his classmates were absent on Wednesday as they are “scared of the needle”. Separate timings were allotted for students as per sections with principal Varsha Upadhyay informing them about the details.

Vishwa Desai of Class 8 Gujarati medium at the school said she was excited for the jab. “I saw my parents take the vaccine and they did not have any side-effects, so there was no fear,” she said.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) covered the drive in most schools by afternoon and kept the later half of the day for making entries and generating vaccine certificates. As per CoWIN data, 3,541 doses were administered in this group in Ahmedabad city.

In Vadodara city, where 3,650 doses were administered in this age group as per CoWIN data, although official VMC bulletin data stated the civic body to have administered 8,930 doses in this age group, also saw vaccinators unable to access online registration of beneficiaries in real-time.

Yug Ingle, 13, a Class 7 student from Navjeevan Vidyalaya in Vadodara said, “I took the shot and it makes me feel confident that I will now be protected from adverse effects of the virus.”

Yug’s mother Komal said that the school had prepared children for the event by imparting knowledge about the necessity of the shot. Komal said, “Children are aware of the consequences of Covid-19 and they have seen closely how it interrupted life for two years… So they are ready to take the vaccine and are even motivating one another.”

Preeti Shah, mother of 12-year-old Sakshi, said, “My daughter had been waiting for the vaccination ever since offline classes began last year… Our family had contracted mild Covid.”

Dr Devesh Patel, municipal officer of health, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), told this newspaper that vaccination centres across the city were unable to continue online registration as the option of choosing Corbevax in the details of the certificate was not available on the CoWin dashboard.

Patel said, “We conducted the sessions as we do when we go for offline vaccinations with vaccinators manually entering the details and generating certificates.”

In Rajkot city, where where 1,253 doses were administered, as per CoWIN dashboard data, mayor Pradip Dav launched the vaccination drive at the Mahatma Gandhi School on Nana Mava road. The target was to administer 2,900 doses but officers of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation said glitches in CoWin platform forced vaccinators to register beneficiaries offline.

Mayor Dav said, “The RMC has so far administered 22 lakh vaccine doses. I urge you children to become our brand ambassadors and request your parents to take vaccine if they have not been immunised so far.” Dav said that the RMC has identified 62,000 beneficiaries for Corbevax, developed by Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Biological E. The civic body has been allotted 32,000 doses of Corbevax
Dr Jayesh Vakani, municipal officer of health, RMC, said, “We faced issues in entering details of beneficiaries on CoWin as the portal is being recalibrated to include Corbevax, which is a new vaccine. Therefore, our staff is doing offline registration of beneficiaries.”

Adding that there is not much enthusiasm among adults and those in the age group to 15 to 17 to get themselves immunised as Covid is on the wane, Vakani said, “Examinations are nearing and due to fear that children may fall sick after vaccine dose, some parents are hesitant to give consent.”

Mauman Bhatti, a Class 6 student of Gandhi school felt giddy after getting the jab. “I was not afraid of the injection but somehow, I felt giddy after the dose. Nonetheless, it’s good that I am getting the vaccine as it will allow me to come to school where there are live classes, library, etc. Studying online was difficult,” said Mauman.

Mauman’s classmate Krish Baldaniya, whose uncle had to be hospitalised for 11 days after contracting Covid-19 last year, said after getting the dose, “Now, I won’t contract Covid-19.”

Parents also welcomed the drive for this age group. “I am happy that my daughter Jiya has protection against Covid-19 now and thanks to that, her education won’t be disrupted again. The enthusiasm she shows in coming to school and learning in the school environment was missing during days of online classes,” said Daksha Bhojani, an ASHA worker whose daughter Jiya is a Class 8 student at Gandhi school.
The MoH said that there were no reports of any adverse events following immunisation till late in the evening.

In Surat, the drive was held in 130 schools by municipal health officials. Mayor Hemali Boghawala was present in Suman school to motivate the students, where the drive was in progress.

Sources in Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) health department said there are over 1.41 lakh children in around 1,000 schools between the age group of 12 years to 14 years in Surat city and it would take around 10 days to vaccinate all. In all the nine municipal zones of the city, 13,867 students were administered the dose on Wednesday, according to the SMC health department even as CoWIN reflected that 7,670 doses were administered, with the highest number in Varachha A zone with 2,852 doses.