The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) has recommended allowing the administration of the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine before nine months for those flying abroad.
At present, the Union Health Ministry has set a nine-month gap after the second dose for the administration of the precaution dose.
The source also confirmed that this recommendation has not been made for all. So, the gap of nine months between second doses and precaution doses will continue for those in India. The NTAGI discussed and recommended this in a meeting held on Wednesday.
India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and 60-plus population on January 10 this year. From April 10, all those above 18 years of age were eligible to get the precaution dose after the completion of 9 months of their second doses.
Meanwhile, India recorded 3,545 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the coronavirus tally to 4,30,94,938. The country also recorded 27 covid-related fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths to 5,24,002.
According to the Health Ministry, the daily positivity rate stood at 1.07 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was 0.70 per cent.
More than 3,500 people also recovered from the coronavirus, taking the total number of Covid recoveries in the country to 4,25,51,248.
India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage crossed 189.79 crore on Thursday evening. More than 14 lakh (14,41,596) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 p.m. As of now, a total of 2,90,75,352 precaution doses have been administered so far in India.
