CBSE asks schools to encourage parents, teachers to vaccinate children

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked the heads of CBSE-affiliated schools to encourage parents, teachers and staff to get their children in the age group 15-18 years vaccinated as soon as possible.

On December 27, 2021, the ministry of health and family welfare issued guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children from January 3, 2022, onwards under the National Vaccination Programme.

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“Taking the Covid-19 vaccination according to the guidelines provided by the Indian government will ensure children’s safety. Students of the 15 to 18 years age group will develop some protection against the coronavirus infection, which is necessary when leaving homes to attend school,” said a letter from the CBSE to schools dated January 5. According to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, over 1 crore teens were vaccinated against COVID-19 in three days.

Several states and cities have closed schools for junior classes due to the latest spike in cases. These include Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, cities in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu.

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Although both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are getting infected with the coronavirus and its variants like the Omicron, vaccination has proved to be efficient considering the reduced fatality and hospitalisation incidents. The impact of the virus on individual health can be reduced through vaccination. Vaccinated individuals will develop better immunity responses against the virus. WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has said that vaccines are effective against coronavirus disease even though infections are going up, since its “severity has not surged”.

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Corona vaccination registration can be done on the Cowin platform. The onsite registration option is also made available by the government of India. Covid Vaccination certificate can also be downloaded from cowin.gov.in.