India Confirms Vaccinating Adolescents Against COVID-19

India Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated in a tweet posted on January 16, 2022, over 3.5 crore teens in the 15-18 age group have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines since January 3. 

Currently, two Covid-19 vaccines have the Indian government's approval for children (12+) and adolescents: Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D.

ZyCoV-D is India's first indigenously developed plasma DNA vaccine against COVID-19.

Previously, 2.75 crore seniors with comorbidities, 1.05 crore healthcare, 1.9 crore frontline workers in India are being administered a 'precautionary dose' (booster dose) of COVID-19 vaccines, reported India Today.

The third dose will be the same COVID-19 vaccine the people have received for their first and second doses. India is not 'mixing and matching' vaccines.

This means that those who received the first two doses of Covaxin will get the same, and those who got Covishield will get it as the third dose.

The time between the second vaccine dose and the third should be at least nine months, the Health Ministry has specified.