The first day of the COVID-19 vaccination programme for children aged between 15 and 18 went off smoothly in Anantapur and Kurnool districts on Monday.
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District Medical and Health Officers of Anantapur and Kurnool Y. Kameswara Prasad and B. Rama Giddaiah respectively said that there were no adverse reactions of the vaccine on any student in both the districts and the children came back to their classrooms after the vaccination.
By 8 p.m. while entries of 35,000 students were updated in Anantapur district, another 5,000 entries were yet to be uploaded as the software gave some problems initially.
“It was heartening to see parents coming forward to get their children vaccinated,” Dr. Kameswara Prasad added.
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In Kurnool district too, 37,000 entries were made till 8 p.m. and 3,000 more were yet to be made. The district health officials were expecting to vaccinate 40,000 students each day. Both the district were given 1.4 lakh does each to begin with against their total requirement of 2.39 lakh in Kurnool and 2.10 lakh in Anantapur district.
Anantapur District Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan supervised the process at Kurugunta Balayogi Residential High School vaccination centre and said that children will be given the jab at their educational institution only.
‘Vaccines are safe’
She said Covaxin was safe and students should get the jab as soon as possible in view of the rising Omicron threat.