Vaccination for children in Karnataka: We'll organise drives at schools, says CM Bommai

New Delhi, Dec 27: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said that the state government has started preparation for giving vaccination for children aged 15 to 18 years from January 3.

"We are preparing to inoculate 15-18-year-olds from Jan 3 by organising vaccination drives at schools," news agency ANI quotes Bommai as saying. The state government will administer 'precautionary dose' to those above 60 years of age with co-morbidities from January 10.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday that vaccination against COVID-19 for children between 15-18 years will start from January 3, while "precaution dose" for healthcare and frontline workers would be administered from January 10.

Talking about the government's decision to administer vaccination for children, he said that this will reduce the worries of children going to schools and colleges and their parents, and boost the fight against the pandemic, Modi said, adding that the move is also likely to aid in normalisation of teaching in schools.

"We all have experienced that the corona warriors, healthcare and frontline workers made a huge contribution in keeping the country safe in this fight. They still spend a lot of his time in the service of coronavirus patients," he said.

"Therefore, from the point of view of precaution, the government has decided that 'precaution dose' of vaccine will be administered to healthcare and frontline workers from January 10, Monday," Modi said.

Meanwhile, the country reported 6,531 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with 315 deaths, Union Health Ministry data said on Monday.

The cases of new Covid variant Omicron has reached 578 out of which 151 patients have been discharged.