(Reuters) - India started vaccinating children aged 15 to 18 against the coronavirus on Monday as it quickly expands its inoculation effort to cover the world’s largest adolescent population amid fears the Omicron variant will drive a new surge of infections. The total number of cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant detected in India was 1,700, the health ministry said. Private and public schools will double up as vaccination centres for children and school authorities have been ordered to report their daily vaccination data to state authorities. They can also go to vaccination centres and get the dose ... they can just walk in,” said Jai Prakash Shivahare, health commissioner in Gujarat state. Adults in India get Covaxin, the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is branded as Covishield, and the Sputnik V shot.

Source: The Nation January 03, 2022 07:03 UTC