The Centre opened up the vaccination drive for a precaution dose for all adults on payment on April 10.(Express Photo by Amit Mehra) As Covid cases continue to rise in the capital, the Delhi government has decided to offer the third precaution dose free to all adults at government vaccination centres. The third dose, which is administered after nine months or 273 days of the second dose, is currently available at Rs 375 (plus GST) at private vaccination centres.
The Centre opened up the vaccination drive for a precaution dose for all adults on payment on April 10.
Only healthcare workers, frontline workers, and those above the age of 60 years, for whom the drive was opened in January and in March, are eligible for free precaution dose as per the Centre’s guidelines. Bihar is the only other state to announce free precaution dose for all adults earlier this week.
“All persons aged above 18 years and up to 59 years will now be eligible for precaution dose at government CVCs (Covid-19 Vaccination Centres) free of cost in addition to the healthcare workers, frontline workers, and above the age of 60 years beneficiaries. The provision of paid precaution dose in private CVCs will also continue to be available,” said an order from the director of family welfare Dr Monika Rana.
Necessary changes have been made to the government’s CoWIN portal to ensure people can book online appointments for the same. Walk-in facility will also be available. The Thursday order stated that the directions have to be implemented from Thursday itself.
Those who have completed the 9-month period after their second dose will get the same vaccine as precaution dose, as per the Centres guidelines.
Takers of the precaution doses have been fewer in Delhi ever since it was opened for healthcare and frontline workers and those above the age of 60 years with comorbidities on January 10 and then everyone over the age of 60 years in March. A total of 5.98 lakh precaution doses have been administered in Delhi, with nearly 1.5 crore people now being eligible since the dose was opened for all adults from April 10 onwards.
Experts have said that ensuring free vaccination would help in keeping severe disease low in places that have started seeing a surge. Dr Jacob John, former professor of virology at Christian Medical College-Vellore, said, “With cases starting to go up, it is also the time to push for booster dose in all. Having people pay for it is a deterrent, and it is too soon to make it paid-for.”
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