Senior citizens with co-morbidities, who have received two doses of the vaccine, will on doctor’s advice be provided with the precaution dose from 10 January
A health worker inoculates a man with a dose of the COVD-19 vaccine at Nair Hospital in Mumbai. AFP
People above the age of 60, who wish to avail of the ‘precautionary COVID-19 vaccine dose’, will not need to upload or provide a medical certificate for eligibility, the Centre clarified on Tuesday.
The decision was announced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare after a meeting was held between the concerned officials and authorities from the states.
“All persons aged 60 years & above with co-morbidities will not be required to produce/submit any certificate from doctor, at the time of administration of precaution dose. Such persons are expected to obtain the advice of their doctor before deciding to avail of the precaution dose,” a letter by Health Secretary Rakesh Bhushan to states read.
The ministry added that the senior citizens are expected to avail the ‘precautionary dose’ only after obtaining advice from their doctors.
The clarification came after reports had stated that senior citizens wishing to avail of the third COVID-19 vaccine would have to provide medical certificate of the co-morbidity while registering on the CoWin platform.
Dr RS Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of National Health Authority (NHA), who also heads the functioning of CoWIN platform, had been quoted as saying: “The elderly population that comes above 60 years of age with co-morbidities is eligible for COVID-19 ‘precautionary doses’, will have to take a medical certificate to take the dose. The other process of vaccination will remain the same as before. The CoWIN application has all the details. They have already got two doses, they can go with their co-morbidities certificate and then get the third dose.”
On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a televised announcement that India would be providing ‘precautionary doses’ of the COVID-19 vaccine to senior citizens suffering from co-morbidities from 10 January 2022.
The government had also announced that the ‘precautionary dose’ could only be taken nine months after the administration of the second dose, the government statement said.
In the same address, he had also said that vaccines would be provided to children from between the age of 15-18 from 3 January 2022.
For the same, registration will begin on 1 January and teenagers can use their school ID instead of Aadhaar cards.
In Tuesday’s meet, it was also decided that those on election duty in poll-bound states will be treated as frontline workers and will be eligible for the precaution dose.
The Centre’s decision to administer precaution doses and vaccines to children comes at a come when the country is seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, amid the Omicron surge.
The country has so far logged 655 Omicron COVID-19 variant infections, with Maharashtra recording the maximum number of 167 such cases followed by Delhi at 165, Kerala 57, Telangana 55, Gujarat 49 and Rajasthan 46.
The Omicron variant has also caused an uptick in COVID-19 cases, with Delhi recording a high of 331 cases — a high since 9 June. On Tuesday, Delhi announced a yellow alert, which entails restrictions like night curfew, closure of schools and colleges, opening of non essential shops based on an odd even basis, halved seating capacity in Metro trains and buses among others.
With inputs from agencies
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