New Delhi: Today (March 22) marks the completion of the first week of vaccination drive for children between the age group of 12 to 14 years in the country, which started a week ago on March 16. In the last six days, the authorities administered the first dose to more than 3.4 million children in the country. The vaccination for the children in this age group seems to be picking up pace as nearly half of the vaccine doses were administered on March 21.
However, there are huge variations in the performance of different states as parents seek to protect their children before the outbreak of a fourth wave in the country. Some states stand out in the race against time as a new Covid wave has already hit the countries in East Asia such as China, Japan and North Korea among others.
8 states administer more than 1 lakh doses
There are eight large states that have administered more than one lakh (1,00,000) doses to children in the 12-14 year age group. These are Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat tops the race to vaccinate the children in this age group with 6,11,301 doses administered as on 7 am March 22.
Gujarat is followed by Andhra Pradesh where 5,80,880 doses have been administered in this age group. These are the only two states in the country which have administered more than 5 lakh doses to children in the age group 12-14 years. After Andhra Pradesh which ranks second in the country in vaccinating the youngest age group, another southern state Tamil Nadu also stands out as it has administered 4,44,635 doses. While Rajasthan has administered 3,70,267 doses to children in this age group, Telangana has administered 2,41,422 doses. There are three large states that are closing in the figure of 2 lakh (2,00,000) doses administered in this age group. These are Karnataka (1,84,303), Maharashtra (1,65,995) and Odisha (1,48,892).
Three big states falter
Three out of India's four most populous states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are lagging behind in vaccinating the children in the 12-14 year age group. While India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated just little over 45,000 children in the age group as on morning of March 22, Bihar vaccinated 93,761 and West Bengal 84,420 children.
Other states and Union territories such as Assam (22,822), Chhattisgarh (31,491), Delhi (56,641), Haryana (56,641), Himachal Pradesh (40,324), Jammu & Kashmir (78,307 ), Jharkhand (28,726), Kerala (26,598), Punjab (46,640) and Uttarakhand (17,395), all have vaccinated less than one lakh (1,00,000) children in this age group. Madhya Pradesh was the only state in the country which has not administered a single dose to children in the 12-14 year age group as it will start it from Tomorrow (March 23). In India, the Union government is the nodal agency for managing the pandemic in the country under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 as amended in April 2020. The Centre is providing Covid vaccines to States and union territories free of cost which administer it to the intended beneficiaries through state machinery.
