Union Health Ministry on Monday emphasised that precaution dose will be a third dose of the same vaccine a person has taken — be it Covishield or Covaxin.

That there will be no mix-and-match of vaccines for the crucial third dose to be given in view of the highly transmissible Omicron variant that is rapidly spreading in the country, sources in the ministry said.

The significant aspect is the gap after the second dose. The third dose will be administered 9-12 months after the second dose to health and frontline workers and senior citizens with co-morbidities, sources said.

In view of the study that immunity from the two doses that are currently being administered, starts waning after three months, the Indian Medical Association had repeatedly asked the government to provide additional doses to front-line and health workers and people with weak or compromised immunity.

According to the Chairman of India’s COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) Dr. NK Arora, Covaxin has shown that it has a very good immune response in children in trials.

Meanwhile, National Health Authority (NHA) chief Dr. RS Sharma said that a person aged 60 and above can get the precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccine only if they have some comorbidities and will have to present a medical certificate for the same.

The certificate of comorbidity should be signed by any registered medical practitioner.

According to Dr. Sharma, the other process of vaccination will remain the same as before. All the details will be available in the Cowin App and those who have already got two doses can go with their Comorbidities certificate and get the third dose.

Dr Sharma added that the medical certificate can be uploaded on the app and beneficiaries can take even that along as a hard copy to the vaccination centre.

There are twenty medical comorbidities criteria, he said,  including diabetes, kidney disease or on dialysis, cardiovascular diseases, stemcell transplant, cancer, cirrhosis, sickle cell disease, current prolonged use of steroids or immunosuppressant drugs, Muscular Dystrophy/ Acid attack with involvement of respiratory system/ Persons with disabilities having high support needs.

These will also include multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness and severe respiratory disease with hospitalizations in last two years, said Dr Sharma.