COVID-19: India’s 75-day free booster drive to begin today

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday called for an intense and ambitious effort towards complete covid vaccination Coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries and covering them with precautionary doses in a virtual meeting with top health officials of states and union territories.

So far, COVID precautionary dose Only available for free to adults over the age of 60. India expanded its vaccination campaign earlier this year to give booster doses to health and frontline workers and people above 60. 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 above the age of 60 years have taken the precautionary dose, Bhushan expressed serious concern over this fact in the meeting.

The free doses are being given as part of the 75-day ‘Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’, which will continue till September 30. Amrit Mahotsav marks 75 years of independent India.

Health officials of the States and Union Territories have been urged to implement the 75-day long campaign through a camp approach with mass gathering.

A government statement said those eligible for the precautionary dose include all individuals over the age of 18 who have completed 6 months (or 26 weeks) from the date of administration of the second dose.

According to a report by Mint’s sister publication Hindustan Times, India’s push for a third dose of the Covid vaccine comes as around 92 per cent of the eligible population – or 594 million adults – are late in receiving their booster shots.

In absolute numbers, about 594 million adults in India are now “late” for their so-called precautionary shots, showed data presented by the Union health ministry.

The move, which comes just 95 days after the government opened up booster doses of vaccines against COVID to all adults, is the second major policy announcement in recent days to push the boosters among the public.

On 6 July, the government announced a reduction of the gap between the second dose and the booster dose from nine to six months.

A cursory look at the data seems to suggest that reluctance to take booster doses will decrease with the free provision of vaccines.

For people aged 60 and above and frontline/health care workers, the booster shot is given free of charge at government centers across the country. In these groups, a smaller share (compared to the 18-60 age group) did not show up for boosters, data show.

According to government data, as of July 12, only 35% of frontline workers eligible and 39% of healthcare workers had not had their booster shot. But for the only general population group receiving free shots (people above the age of 60), this ratio is higher than 73% – suggesting that the free shots strategy works, but still other measures such as That may need to be accompanied by a public awareness campaign.

For the 18-45 age group, the booster absenteeism figure is 98.8% of the 360 ​​million eligible people. The figure is equally high in the age group of 45-60 years (98% of 158.5 million eligible).

The proportion of eligible but missing own boosters is now larger than before July 6 after the government reduced the gap required to get boosters from nine months to six – making more than 350 million people eligible for a booster shot overnight.

According to experts, making the booster free for all will help reduce the extent of this problem, but along with it there is a need for other measures including maximizing. Mask wearing.

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