Govt considers booster doses for international travel

After the the resumption of all international passenger flights from Sunday, the government is mulling booster doses to those who are seeking to travel abroad for education, employment, official purpose or sports, sources in the Ministry told BuisnessLine.

“The Centre is considering extending booster doses to all those who are planning to go abroad for education, sports or any other buiness commitment. The government has enough vaccine doses, and is willing to extend the booster doses to as many people as possible,” a highly-placed source told BusinessLine. He further added that the precuationary doses will be optional for this category. Meanwhile, the government is also willing to provide booster doses to those who land in India.

“Other nitty gritties like timelime, where the booster doses will be available, pricing are being finalised. No final decision with regard to these points has been taken so far,” the source further stated. It may be recalled that BusinessLine had earlier reported that the government is considering third dose for everyone above 18 in view of increasing cases in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.

In addtion, reputed Virologist T Jacob John also advocated the case for booster doses for all. He said “immunisation is not complete without a booster for all. It is necessary for long-lasting immunity. All with two doses will need a booster, irrespective of age. It is not for immediate protection against disease or infection but for long lasting immunity for any future eventuality”.

Besides this, India is continuing with the downward trend in daily Covid cases. On Monday, the country registered 1,270 fresh infections with 31 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am, according to Health Ministry data. The daily positivty and the weekly positivity rate in the country stood at 0.29 per cent and 0.26 per cent, respectively. In Maharashtra, Covid cases stood at 110 with no new fatality. Also, in the previous day, 4,32,389 Covid tests were conducted, aggregating to more than 78.73 crore tests done so far, as per the data. The active caseload in the country stood at 15,859 on Monday, constituting 0.04 per cent of the country’s total positive cases.

According to the government data, more than 16.16 crore vaccine doses are still available with the Government. Also, more than 24.05 lakh vaccine shots were administered on Monday till 7:00 pm and with this more than 183.40 crore doses have been administered so far. The Hindu Businessline