New Delhi, 11 Jan 2021: Lakshadweep Administration has achieved another milestone in COVID-19 management by vaccinating all the eligible children of age group 15 to 18 years of age in a short span of time. With this, Lakshadweep has become the first among the UTs and states to have achieved this feat.
The vaccination drive for children was launched by Shri Praful Patel, Hon’ble Administrator on 3rd January, 2021 in Kavaratti as part of the nationwide campaign. It is remarkable that the target of 3492 children was achieved within a week after the launch of vaccination drive through various awareness campaigns conducted in schools and mobilization drives in all the ten inhabited islands of Lakshadweep. Earlier, Lakshadweep became the first among the UTs and states to have achieved 100 percentage vaccination in other categories such as healthcare workers, frontline workers and age group above 18 years.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has provided adequate quantity of Covaxin doses for facilitating the vaccination of children and for administering the booster doses. Moreover, Lakshadweep Administration has also started providing booster doses to frontline workers, healthcare workers and citizens above 60 years of age from 10th January, 2021 as per the guidelines of ICMR.
Through proactive measure of COVID-19 management such as imposition of night curfew, mandatory RTPCR negative certificate and active vaccination, testing and tracking, Lakshadweep Adminstration is also getting prepared for the third wave of pandemic, if any, that strikes the islands in future.