New Delhi: In a major step to expand the coverage of booster doses, the central government on Wednesday announced that booster doses will be made available free of cost to all persons above the age of 18 years at all government immunization centres. It will be applicable for 75 days from 15 July 2022.
“India is celebrating 75 years of independence. On the occasion of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal’, the government has decided to provide free booster doses to all people above the age of 18 years at all government immunization centers. This new provision will provide additional security to the people of India”, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said during a cabinet briefing in New Delhi.
Last week, the Union Health Ministry reduced the gap of the Kovid-19 vaccine booster dose from nine months to six months. The decision was taken following a recommendation by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization to modify the period between the second dose and the precautionary dose from nine months or 39 weeks to six months or 26 weeks.
India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage is over 199.12 crores. As of now, booster doses are available free of cost at government immunization centers only for health workers, frontline workers and all elderly people over the age of 60.
Last month, Mint reported that the government is concerned about under-use of COVID-19 booster doses, with only 7% of 18-60-year-olds and 40% of those over 60 having given up so far.
Overall, India has so far given only 5,10,96,109 booster doses against a target population of around 950 million eligible individuals.
So far, 59,26,210 booster doses have been given to health workers, 1,11,24,805 to frontline workers, while 2,98,75,819 booster doses have been given to people in the age group of 18-60 years and 2,67. ,53,532 for those above 60 years of age.
According to health ministry data, the use of booster shots in the age group of 18-59 years is particularly low in Arunachal Pradesh (106), Chandigarh (7,152), Goa (7,749), Jammu and Kashmir (8,350). ), Manipur (12), Sikkim (1,007), Tripura (328), Meghalaya (611), Mizoram (447), Nagaland (647), Puducherry (5,435), Punjab (11,272), Himachal Pradesh (8,104), Gujarat (7,749) ) ) e.t.c.
Dr NK Arora, Head, NTAGI’s Covid-19 Working Group said, “A very welcome move and there is potential for increased coverage of precautionary doses. COVID is around us and the reporting of new subpopulations at regular intervals makes it desirable for all eligible adults to go for a precautionary dose at the earliest.
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