Haryana Covid: Khattar Govt Decides to Provide Free Booster Doses to All Aged 18-59

The Modi government, on April 10, had allowed the rollout of booster doses for all adults above the age of 18 from 10 April.  

Covid Haryana: With an aim to contain the further spike in the cases, the Haryana government on Monday announced that it will provide free booster Covid-19 vaccine doses to the eligible population in the age group of 18-59 years. The state will splurge Rs 300 crore for this purpose, according to news agency ANI.

To recall, the Delhi government had also made the precaution or booster doses free of cost for people aged between 18 and 59 years in government hospitals earlier. “In order to give the benefit of precaution dose to all eligible beneficiaries in Delhi, the same will be available for 18 to 59 years age group, free of cost in all government CVCs from April 21,” the Delhi health department had said.

The Modi government, on April 10, had allowed the rollout of booster doses for all adults above the age of 18 from 10 April.  “All those who are more than 18 years of age and have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose, would be eligible for precaution dose,” the health ministry had said.

However, the facility could only be available at private vaccination centres. It was directed that the third dose would be of the same vaccine the same as the first two doses administered to a beneficiary, and no mix-and-match would be allowed.

The government had also said that private vaccination centres can charge up to a maximum of ₹150 per dose as a service charge over and above the cost of the vaccine.

Serum Institute Asks Government To Reduce Time Gap for Covid Vaccine Booster Dose to Six Months

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has urged the Union Health Ministry to reduce the gap between the second and booster dose to six months from nine months at present to safeguard people against emerging Covid variants. Recalling that they could not meet the commitment of exporting vaccines in the first quarter of 2021 due to “so much noise from public and the opposition”, Poonawalla on Tuesday also pitched for a global pact for vaccine utilization.

“The uptake (for precaution dose) right now is a bit slow as we have a rule that you have to wait for nine months between dose two and dose three. We have appealed to the government and the experts, who are having discussions regarding the matter, to reduce this period to six months,” Poonawala said during an AIMA event.