Govt mulls Covid booster shots for all above 18 years

The government is considering allowing booster dose of Covid vaccine for all those above 18 years in view of a surge in infections in parts of the world and ease difficulties faced during international travel, sources said on Monday.

Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and those aged above 60 years are being administered precaution doses.

All the people aged above 60 have been made eligible for the precaution dose of Covid vaccine after the Union Health Ministry removed the comorbidity clause recently.

The prioritisation and sequencing of the dose would be based on the completion of nine months to 39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose.

“The government is considering to allow booster dose of Covid vaccine to all those above 18 years in view of a surge in infections in parts of the world and ease difficulties faced during international travel.” a source said.

India began COVID-19 vaccination for children in the age group of 12 -14 years from March 16 this year.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16, 2021, with the healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of the frontline workers started from February 2 last year.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1 last year.

The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from May 1 last year.

The next phase of Covid vaccination commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.
India began administering precaution doses of the vaccines to the healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10 this year.