Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday called for an intensive and ambitious push towards full COVID vaccination coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries and covering them with precaution dose at a virtual meeting with top health officials from states and union territories.
So far, the COVID precaution doses were available for free only for adults above 60 years of age. India expanded the vaccination drive for giving booster doses to health and frontline workers and those above 60 earlier this year. This was further expanded to cover all adults in April.
Highlighting that only 8% of adults above the age of 18 years and 27% of adults aged above 60 years have taken the precautionary dose, Bhushan expressed grave concern over the fact at the meeting.
The free doses are being given as part of the 75-day ‘COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava’, which will continue till September 30. The Amrit Mahotsava marks 75 years of independent India.
Health officials from states and union territories have been urged to implement the 75-day long drive with a massive mass mobilization, through a camp approach.
A government statement said that those eligible for the precaution dose include all persons of ≥18 years who have completed 6 months (or 26 weeks) from the date of administration of 2nd dose.
India’s push for the third dose of Covid vaccine comes as about 92 per cent of the eligible population - or 594 million adults - is late in getting their booster shots, as per a report of Mint's sister publication Hindustan Times.
In absolute numbers, nearly 594 million adults in India are now “late" for their so-called precaution shots, data furnished by the Union health ministry shows.
The move, which comes exactly 95 days after the government opened booster dose of vaccines against COVID for all adults, is the second major policy announcement in recent days to push boosters among the masses.
On July 6, the government announced a reduction in the gap between the second dose and booster dose from nine to six months.
A cursory look at data appears to suggest that reluctance to take booster doses will come down with free provision of vaccines.
For those of age 60 years and above and frontline/health care workers, the booster shot is administered for free at government centres all over the country. Among these groups, a smaller share (compared to the 18-60 age group) has not shown up for boosters, data shows.
As per the government data, till July 12, only 35% of eligible among frontline workers, and 39% of eligible among healthcare workers had not taken their booster shot. But for the only general population group that is getting free shots (those above 60 years), this proportion is higher at 73% – suggesting that the strategy of free shots works, but may still need to be accompanied by other measures such as public awareness campaigns.
For the 18-45 age group, the booster absentee statistic is a whopping 98.8% of 360 million eligible people . This figure is similarly high (98% of 158.5 million eligible) in the 45-60 years age group.
The proportion of those eligible but missing their boosters is bigger now than what it was before July 6 after the government reduced the required gap for taking a booster from nine months to six – making more than 350 million more people eligible for a booster shot overnight.
According to experts, while the making the boosters free for all will help in reducing the extent of this problem, it needs to be accompanied with other measures including maximal mask wearing.
