People travelling abroad are eligible to take the Covid-19 booster shots as required

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday said that people who are travelling abroad are now eligible to take the Covid-19 booster shots as required. This comes soon after the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had recommended that the gap between the second and third shot be made shorter for those who are travelling overseas.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted Thursday: “Indian citizens & students travelling overseas can now take the precaution dose as required by the guidelines of the destination country. This new facility will be available soon on the CoWIN portal.”

At present, in India, the third precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccines has been made available to the 18-plus population groups at private vaccination centres. Under the current guidelines, only those adults who have completed nine months after the second dose are eligible for the precaution dose. With the latest decision, Indians travelling abroad don’t need to wait for nine months after the second dose to get the precaution (third) dose.

The NTAGI had on Wednesday said people wishing to travel abroad can shorten the government-stipulated nine-month gap between the second and booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Later, the recommendation was made to the Union health ministry.

The Centre had received several requests seeking the precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccine for those who have to travel abroad for employment, business commitments, admission to foreign educational institutes, participating in sports events, and bilateral and multilateral meetings as part of India’s official delegation.

The NTAGI is scheduled to meet again this week to review the data for immunisation of children between 5-12 years of age for Covid-19 and firm up vaccination protocols. The last two meetings were inconclusive, with NTAGI experts yet to be convinced about the paediatric data available for vaccination.

With 2,827 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, the country’s tally of Covid-19 cases has gone up to 4,31,13,413, while active cases have dipped to 19,067. The death toll has jumped to 5,24,181 with 24 new fatalities reported in the last 24 hours. Of the new deaths, 17 are from Kerala, two from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

The health ministry data shows active cases are 0.04 per cent of total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.74 per cent. There has been a decrease of 427 cases in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate stands at 0.60 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.72 per cent.