Battling a spike in Covid cases pushed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, India on Monday kicked off the drive to give late booster doses called “precaution shots” of the Covid-19 vaccine to priority groups. Health and frontline workers and citizens above 60 years old with comorbidities are currently eligible to take the jab.
There is no need for a new registration on CoWIN platform for those eligible for the precautionary or the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The portal has sent over one crore reminder messages to the beneficiaries to get the precaution dose, said a senior official from the Union Health Ministry.
Notably, the precaution dose can only be taken after 39 weeks (from the date of administration of 2nd dose).
The Ministry has recommended that the precaution dose for healthcare workers, frontline workers, and senior citizens with co-morbidities will be the same as given previously.
Also, the senior citizens with co-morbidities will not be required to produce a doctor’s certificate or prescription at the time of administration of the precaution dose.
The details of the administration of the precaution dose will be suitably reflected in the vaccination certificates. An estimated 1.05 crore healthcare and 1.9 crore frontline workers, and 2.75 crore comorbid people in the 60 plus age group are going to be administered the precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
“The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) has recommended the administration of the homologous vaccine for HCWS, FLWs and elders (more than 60 years of age) with co-morbidities, i.e. the same vaccine that has been administered for the previous two doses would be given as the precaution dose to the eligible beneficiaries,” said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter.
Earlier, Vikas Sheel, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission, said that the reminder SMSs have been pushed to more than 1 crore beneficiaries for the precaution dose.
On Friday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in a tweet said that the third dose of Covaxin holds promise. “Third dose of Covaxin holds promise,” ICMR had tweeted. The medical research body in its tweet further highlighted the benefits of getting Covaxin’s precautionary dose.
India started administering the “precautionary doses” on the same day when the country recorded 1,79,723 new Covid-19 cases, 146 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 4,83,936, as per data released by the Ministry.