Amidst the renewed scare of a fresh bout of coronavirus outbreak following the emergence of a much more virulent and infectious ‘Omicron’ COVID-19 variant, the Indian government on Monday said it will formulate a policy for vaccine booster shots in the coming two weeks.
Dr N K Arora, India’s COVID-19 Task Force Chairman informed that a comprehensive policy on additional and booster doses for the COVID-19 vaccine will be made public in the next two weeks. He added that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation(NTAGI) of India was working on a policy for COVID booster shots, and the same would be released in December.
Delhi | A comprehensive policy on additional & booster doses for COVID-19 will be made public in the next 2 weeks by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) of India: Dr. N K Arora, India’s COVID-19 Task Force Chairman pic.twitter.com/HZqLFbSD5Z
— ANI (@ANI) November 29, 2021
“A comprehensive policy on additional and booster for COVID-19 will be made public in the next two weeks by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation(NTAGI) of India,” Dr N K Arora said while speaking to news agency ANI.
In addition to this, the chief of India’s COVID task force also revealed that a detailed plan to vaccinate 44 crore children under the age of 18 years would also be shared soon. He suggested that prioritisation in vaccination will be given to children with comorbidities.
A comprehensive plan for immunizing 44 crore children below the age of 18 years will be made public soon; prioritization process is underway so that children with comorbidities be given vaccination, followed by healthy children: Dr. N K Arora, India’s COVID-19 Task Force Chairman pic.twitter.com/01ey6gP2xt
— ANI (@ANI) November 29, 2021
Besides vaccinations, Dr N K Arora also weighed in on the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’, adding that the data so far has shown that the mutation was highly transmissible. “We see that there is a lot of talk about this new variant for the last 6-7 days. The WHO within 48 hours declared this virus as a ‘variant of concern’. There are scientific and robust biological reasons for that. The number of mutations is far too many,” he said.
The new variant ‘Omicron’ has sent countries across the world into a tizzy, forcing them to impose restrictions that they had grudgingly relaxed. The variant, which was first detected in South Africa, and has since then been found in many European countries, prompting nations to impose travel bans from places where it has been detected. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on Saturday to review the preparedness and the vaccination situation with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting lasted around 2 hours and the emergence of the Omicron variant was also discussed. The plans for relaxing international travel restrictions were also discussed in light of the Omicron variant.
