New Delhi

Over 7 lakh beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group have registered themselves on the CoWIN portal for COVID-19 vaccination, which will start from January 3 onwards.

The data on CoWIN dashboard is reflecting the registration of 7,21,521 beneficiaries of the said age group by 9:20 pm.

The registrations for vaccinating children falling in the age bracket of 15 to 18 years started on January 1. CoWIN is the Government of India's portal under the Union Ministry of Health launched for COVID-19 vaccination registration.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 had announced that the country is preparing to begin the COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 15 to 18 years.

The Union Health Secretary also informed the States and Union Territories that only Covaxin is to be administered in this category of the population and additional doses should be sent to States and union territories.

Earlier, CoWIN platform chief Dr R S Sharma said, "We've added an additional (10th) ID card for registration -the student ID car because some might not have Aadhaar or their identity cards."