After a nine-month gap of complete immunisation, that is, 39 weeks, booster doses are prescribed to be given to 60+ aged populace, healthcare and frontline workers There was a meeting of the union secretary of health wherein the complete plan and course of action was discussed with Punjab, Haryana, UT Chandigarh, and PGIMER officials. It has been decided that healthcare workers and frontline workers would get booster doses from 3rd January onwards.
PGIMER, Chandigarh while sharing their official statement, said, “As per the latest guidelines of MOHFW, GoI, PGIMER will start administering Covid-19 vaccine in Advanced Pediatric Centre to all the children aged 15-18 years of age. These children will receive two doses of Covaxin at an interval of 28 days intramuscularly in the arm from 3rd January onwards. Parents can register their children on the CoWIN app. Later from 10th January onwards, all the healthcare workers, frontline workers, and elderly with comorbidities will be receiving the precautionary dose as per the GoI guidelines in LT-1 Nehru building PGIMER.”
“Union health secretary has scheduled a meeting through video conferencing on Tuesday to discuss the guidelines. All persons aged 60 years and above with comorbidities who have received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, will be provided with a precaution dose from 10th January. The prioritisation and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of nine months, that is, 39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose,” said Director Health Services, Chandigarh Dr Suman Singh. “All children between 15 years and 18 years of age will receive two doses of Covaxin. They must take it for protection against Covid,” she said. As per DHS Dr Singh, “Covaxin would be inoculated in children 15-18 age group and for FLWs, HCWs, and elderly same as what has been administered before, which means if someone vaccinated completely with Covishield before then booster would also be of Covishield and same with Covaxin.”
The Indian Association of Pediatrics had recommended prioritising vaccination for children with high-risk conditions. “Single booster dose would definitely help immunocompromised patients in rebuilding their waning immunity,” said Prof Arun Bansal, Advanced Pediatric Centre, PGIMER. From 10 January, 31,374 frontline workers and 20,000 registered healthcare workers in the city will be given the booster shots. The vaccination for the adult population started from 16 January. 84% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated against Covid.