Kerala to start a vaccination drive against COVID-19 in schools across the state from Wednesday, January 19. The move comes after a high-level meeting, chaired by Minister for Health Veena George and Minister for General Education V Sivankutty, was held on January 16.
Following the joint meeting by two Ministers, a separate meeting was held by the Health and the General Education departments in order to map out the details of the drive. As per the guidelines issued later in the day, vaccines are to be given to children in the age group of 15 to 17. This age group is only eligible for Covaxin and it has to be administered with parents consent.
It is the particular district administration, in collaboration with the Education Department, that will identify schools where vaccination drives are to be held. The government guidelines only allow schools with 500 beneficiaries or more for this purpose.
What do schools need to do?
School authorities have to ensure the availability of physically-distanced waiting areas, a vaccination room and an observation room. They will also have to prepare a list of students to be administered the vaccine on a particular day much beforehand and inform them about their time slots. The day before the vaccination, the schools will have to ensure that all their eligible students are registered on the CoWIN portal.
The number of school vaccination centres will be decided by the district task force. The centres will be linked to a nearby government COVID vaccination facility.
Who and what should schools expect?
The vaccination team will comprise a medical officer from the Health Department, a vaccinator and a staff nurse. Additional support staff needs to be provided by the school. Vaccines will not be administered to students with fever and other illnesses.
After vaccination, students will be kept under observation for 30 minutes. A mechanism to manage adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) will be put in place in each centre so that any health problems students may have following the vaccination can be addressed.
If a student suffers any discomfort, they should be immediately shifted to the AEFI management centre. Schools should arrange for an ambulance with oxygen support. All doses administered will have to be recorded on CoWIN.
