Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and people over the age of 60 are administered precautionary doses.
The Center is considering boosting Covid vaccination for anyone over the age of 18 in view of an increase in coronavirus infections in parts of the world and also to alleviate the difficulties encountered during international travel, sources said Monday.
Currently, healthcare professionals and frontline workers and people over the age of 60 are receiving the precautionary doses of the Covid vaccine. All people over the age of 60 are eligible for this dose after the Ministry of Health recently removed the comorbidity clause.
Dose prioritization and sequencing is based on completion of nine months, or 39 weeks, from the date of administration of the second dose.
“The government is considering a booster dose of Covid vaccine for anyone over the age of 18 in view of an increase in infections in parts of the world and to alleviate the difficulties encountered during international travel,” a source said.
Amid a growing chorus for booster doses across various states, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and asked the government to come up with clear guidelines for boosters for people under the age of 60, noting that different countries impose strict conditions on foreign travelers.
Chaturvedi said several countries want the second injection of the Covid vaccine to have been taken within a certain time frame, otherwise the vaccination certificate will not be considered valid.
In many European countries, she said, vaccines are only valid for 270 days. If travelers receive their last vaccination in April 2021, they will not be able to enter many EU countries without a valid Covid test.
“Therefore, Indians who are finally looking forward to traveling abroad are now being let down by the lack of clear guidance regarding the need for the third extra dose to travel abroad. The current situation regarding travel and vaccination is creating a baffling situation for Indians,” she said during Zero Hour.
India now has a surplus of vaccines, but there is no clear guideline to vaccinate people under 60 for those seeking a booster dose for travel or security purposes, the Rajya Sabha MP added.
White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, meanwhile, said vaccines and booster shots remain the best means of preventing serious illness from the virus.
Fauci also warned that a highly contagious sub-variant of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, known as BA.2, could soon lead to another surge in coronavirus cases in the US.
The US’s top infectious disease expert said the subvariant is estimated to account for about 30 percent of all new cases in the US, and is also the most dominant variant in the country.
Fauci said BA.2 is about 60 percent more transmissible than Omicron, but it doesn’t appear to be more serious.
“It has increased transmission capacity,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “However, if you look at the cases, they don’t seem to be more serious and they don’t seem to evade the immune responses of vaccines or previous infections,” he explained.
The variant has already caused a wave of cases in China and parts of Europe.
India has started administering precautionary doses of the Covid vaccine to healthcare professionals and frontline workers and people over 60 with comorbidities from January 10 this year.
Since January 10, more than 2.17 crore precautionary doses have been administered to the identified categories of beneficiaries so far.
The COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 12-14 years started on March 16 this year.
The nationwide vaccination campaign was rolled out on January 16, 2021, with health workers vaccinated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers has started since February 2 last year.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination began on March 1 last year for people over 60 and people 45 and over with specified comorbidities.
India launched vaccination for all people over the age of 45 from April 1, 2021.
The cabinet then decided to expand the vaccination campaign by having everyone over the age of 18 vaccinated against the virus from 1 May 2021. The next phase of Covid vaccination started from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15 years. -18 years.
This post Covid-19: Center considers booster shot for all adults; Shiv Sena MP seeks guidelines for boosters for under 60s
was original published at “https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/govt-mulls-covid-booster-shots-for-all-above-18-years/2466879/”
