Representational image  |  Photo Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The gap between the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine and ‘booster’ precaution shot is likely to be nine to 12 months, news agency PTI reported, quoting official sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, in a televised address to the nation, announced India’s plan to launch a third dose of the vaccine for the fully vaccinated – “precaution dose” – in January next year.
He said that the precaution dose for healthcare and frontline workers will be introduced from January 10.
The Prime Minister also announced that option of precaution dose will be available for senior citizens above 60 years of age with co-morbidities on the advice of their doctors from January 10.
The announcement came amid growing concern over the highly-contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus.
The nitty-gritty of the gaps for the vaccines currently being used in India’s inoculation drive – Covishield and Covaxin – is being worked out, and a final decision over this will be taken soon, the sources said.
“The gap between the second and the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine is likely to be nine to 12 months with the immunisation division and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) discussing on these lines,” a source said.
Over 61 per cent of India’s adult population has been administered both doses of the vaccine while about 90 per cent has received the first dose.