NTAGI chief urges people to take precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Chairman of India’s Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), Dr NK Arora, on Tuesday, strongly advocated for the precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccine. He appealed to people to take the booster dose a day after it was reported that only 20 percent of the eligible people in India have taken the precaution dose of Covid vaccine so far.

While urging the people to get themselves inoculated with the precaution dose to combat coronavirus, Dr Arora said, “I request everyone to take precautionary doses as our antibodies decrease after 6-8 months. Booster doses will act as insurance for our health in the future. According to the data, in the last 8 months, 90 per cent of patients admitted to hospitals did not received the booster doses.”

He cautioned people against being complacent in the fight against the pandemic which has led to lakhs of deaths and crippled the economies across the world.

“Covid is very much around us and there is quite a significant transmission of viruses going on. Although we do not see a severe form of it and fortunately the number of deaths is extremely low,” the chairman of the NTAGI said.

Meanwhile, the lowest coverage of precaution dose of Covid vaccine has been reported from Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Punjab and Haryana.

Officials on August 30 said that only around 12 per cent of the eligible 77 crore population in the age group of 18-59 years have been administered the precaution dose, while 35 per cent of the 16.80 crore population aged 60 years and above, healthcare and frontline workers have taken the booster dose.

The Union health ministry had launched the ‘Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava’ on July 15, 2022 to accelerate the vaccination drive against coronavirus.

Covid Vaccine Amrit Mahotsav’ campaign was launched to give an impetus to precaution dose as part of the national Covid vaccination drive. Under the campaign, free precaution doses at all government Covid vaccination centres for persons aged 18 years and above from July 15 to September 30, 2022 are being provided. Times Now