Chandigarh, Jan 3 (PTI) Over 50,000 teens in the age group of 15 to 18 were administered coronavirus vaccine in Haryana on Monday.

There are around 15.40 lakh teens in the state who will be given the jab, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said.

Also Read | COVID-19 Vaccination for Children: Over 1.5 Lakh Teenagers Aged 15-18 Years Administered Vaccine Doses in Uttar Pradesh.

As many as 54,979 teens in this age group were administered the vaccine in the state on the first day, Vij said.

He said 8,062 children were vaccinated in Panipat, which was the highest figure of those taking the jab on the first day.

Also Read | Hyderabad: 33-Year-Old Man Killed During Drunken Brawl, 4 Others Injured.

As many as 7,612 teens took the jab in Ambala, 5,093 in Palwal, 4,751 in Gurugram and 4,222 in Karnal district.

In districts like Nuh, 266 teens took the vaccine. Meanwhile, 424 teens were administered the vaccine in Kurukshetra and 601 in Sirsa district.

Krishika, a Class 10 student who took the jab in Panchkula, urged all those in the 15-18 age group to take the jab.

Krishika, who was excited to receive the vaccine, said taking the jab was necessary as it is the only shield against coronavirus.

The process to vaccinate teens has commenced amid a scare of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

In Haryana, daily cases have been on the rise for past over a week while the state on Monday also reported eight fresh infections of the Omicron variant, taking the total tally of such cases in the state to 71 so far, of which 12 are active cases while the rest have been discharged.

The Drugs Controller General of India had granted emergency use authorisation to indigenously-developed Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children above 12 with certain conditions on December 24.

Haryana Health Minister Vij had earlier directed his department to provide separate vaccination session sites, queues and if possible separate centres and vaccination teams for this age group.

The registration for this category of beneficiaries had opened on Saturday.

According to the guidelines, they can self-register online through an existing account on CoWIN or can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number as is the case with all other categories of beneficiaries.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)