Norms for Covid booster dose relaxed for overseas travellers
NEW DELHI: Relaxing norms for Covid vaccine precaution dose, the Centre on Thursday allowed citizens travelling overseas to get the shot before the stipulated nine-month waiting period as required by the guidelines of the destination country.
The Union health ministry’s decision to relax the norms about the precaution dose for overseas travellers was based on recommendations by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).
“Indian citizens and students travelling overseas can now take the precaution dose as required by the guidelines of the destination country. This new facility will be available soon on the CoWIN portal,” Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet.
The advisory panel last week had recommended that those who need to travel overseas can take the precaution dose of Covid vaccine as required by the country they are travelling to before the mandatory ninemonth gap.
Currently, all those above 18 years who have completed nine months after the second dose are eligible for the precaution jab.
The ministry had received several representations seeking the precaution dose of Covid vaccine for those who have to travel abroad for employment, business commitments, admission to foreign educational institutes, participating in sports events, and bilateral and multilateral meetings as part of India’s official delegation.
“The issue was discussed in a meeting of NTAGI held last week after which it recommended that those who need to travel overseas can take the booster shot, before the stipulated ninemonth waiting period, as per the booster guidelines of the country they are travelling to,” a source had said.
India began administering precaution doses of Covid vaccines to health care and front-line workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10 this year.
The comorbidity clause was removed in March making all people aged above 60 eligible for the precaution dose of Covid vaccine.
On April 10, India began administering precaution doses of Covid-19 vaccines to all aged above 18 years at private vaccination centres.
The Centre had clarified that the precaution doses will be homologous, which means that if you have received the Covishield vaccine for your first and second doses, your third dose will also be of Covishield and similarly if your first two doses were of Covaxin, the booster shot will also be the same.
The two vaccines that are the mainstay of national Covid immunisation programme are Covaxin and Covishield. Bharat Biotech developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, and Serum Institute of India locally manufactured OxfordAstraZeneca Covid vaccine under the brand name Covishield.
The government has not yet allowed mixing and matching of precaution dose as several trials are currently going on in the country to know the effect of existing vaccines as boosters.
Also, no fresh registration is required for the precautionary dose as all due beneficiaries are already registered on the Co-Win portal.
With 2,827 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 4,31,13,413, while the active cases dipped to 19,067, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 5,24,181 with 24 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was 98.74 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 427 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.60 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.72 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,70,165, while the case fatality rate was 1.22 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid19 vaccination drive has exceeded 190.83 crore. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the onecrore mark on December 19. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.
The 24 new fatalities include 17 from Kerala, two from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jhakhand and Maharashtra. A total of 5,24,181 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,47,850 from Maharashtra, 69,342 from Kerala, 40,105 from Karnataka, and 38,025 from Tamil Nadu