Precautionary dose for health care workers and those aged above 60 with comorbidities will be applicable from next month after nine months of receiving the second dose, said Dr R S Sharma, chief executive officer, National Health Authority.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on 25 December announced that the country would begin administering ‘precautionary doses’ to those above the age of 60 and suffering from co-morbidities from January 10, next year.
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“The process will be exactly the same. When you are more than 60 years and have already been given two doses and if you want to register for the third dose, the gap between the second dose and the day you are registering or the day you are getting the third dose should be more than nine months which is 39 weeks,” said Dr Sharma.
The CoWIN platform chief explained that those eligible for third shot will have to show comorbidity certificate from a registered physician to summarise the problem and then the jab will be given.
The registration and vaccination rules are same following the health ministry circular, he added.
Dr Sharma said that adoption of technology during the pandemic has resulted in positive progress in this sphere even in the healthcare sector.
“I think the adoption of digital technologies has seen an acceleration due to this pandemic,” he said.
On the expansion of other government-run healthcare programmes like immunization and digitization, Dr. Sharma said, “So the platform will be redeployed, repurposed for universal immunization program, for managing the blood banking ecosystem and probably other programs also, which are similar to this kind of program where there are stakeholders, one is a provider and other is a seeker. And then you know, we want to have coverage, comprehensive coverage, so universal immunization program will be a very good candidate for Covid to be replicated.” (with agency inputs)
