The Union health ministry on Friday announced that Covid precaution dose, also known as the booster dose, will be available to the 18+ population starting from April 10, at private vaccination centres. “It has been decided that precaution dose of COVID vaccines will be made available to 18+ population group at private vaccination centres. The administration of Precaution Dose to 18+ population through Private Vaccination Centres would start from 10th April (Sunday), 2022. All those who are more than 18 years of age & have completed 9 months after the administration of second dose, would be eligible for Precaution Dose. This facility would be available in all Private Vaccination Centres,” the statement issued by the Centre said.
The ongoing free vaccination programme through government vaccination centres for the first, second and the precaution dose to healthcate workers, frontline workers and the population above the age of 60 will continue and the pace would be accelerated, the health ministry said. The Covid vaccination programme which began in January 2021 got extended in several phases including adolescents as well. Now all adults are eligible for the third dose of the vaccine, in a remarkable milestone for India's vaccination programme. Precaution dose is the third dose of the same vaccine that one has been administered against the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The necessity of a third dose was felt worldwide with the emergence of newer variants of the virus, while the immunity produced by two doses of the vaccine wanes gradually.