Prescription not required by senior citizens to establish co-morbidity for precaution dose: Health Ministry

Senior citizens with co-morbidities will not be required to produce a doctor's certificate or prescription at the time of administration of precaution dose, Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a workshop through video conference (VC) on Tuesday with all states and union territories to review the rollout of vaccination for the age group 15-18 and precautionary third dose for vulnerable categories - healthcare workers (HCW), frontline workers (FLW), and those above 60 years who have comorbidity.

As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25, the vaccination for the age-group 15-18 years is scheduled to begin from January 3, 2022, while the administration of the precautionary third dose for the vulnerable categories is to commence from January 10.

In the context of the vaccination of the age group 15-18 years, the Union Health Secretary informed the states/UTs that only Covaxin is to be administered in this category and additional doses of the vaccine will be sent to them.

It said the Centre will share the supply schedule of Covaxin with all the states and UTs in the next few days.

Potential beneficiaries can either register themselves on Co-WIN from January 1 or avail of a walk-in registration when vaccination commences from January 3.

Those with the birth year of 2007 or before will be eligible for vaccination under this category.

The release said all established protocols regarding vaccination are to be followed for the 15-18 years age group and beneficiaries are to wait for half an hour when they will be monitored for any 'adverse event' following immunization (AEFI). They will be eligible for the second dose only after 28 days.

States were informed that they have the option to designate some COVID Vaccination Center (CVC) as dedicated CVC for the 15-18 age group exclusively which can also be reflected on Co-WIN.

Drawing attention to "misinformation" being propagated regarding the requirement of a doctor's certificate to establish co-morbidity at the CVC, the Health Secretary categorically emphasized that the Union Government has not issued any directions and "prescriptions/certificates are not mandated to be produced at the CVC for the administration of the precaution dose".

( With inputs from ANI )

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