India’s Covid-19 task force Chairman NK Arora on Monday said that a detailed plan to roll out booster and additional shots for adults and vaccines for children will be announced in two weeks, ANI reported.
Arora explained that the booster and additional doses are two different things. The booster shots, he said, are given after a predefined period, whereas additional doses of a vaccine are given on priority to people with weaker immunity.
“The National Technical Advisory Group’s policy will deal with who will require the vaccine, when and how,” Arora said. “This needs to be seen in the context that a new variant [of coronavirus] is coming and with time only we will get to know more information about it. Therefore relevance and effectiveness of the current vaccines will also become apparent with time only.”
The new strain of coronavirus called Omicron was first found in South Africa on November 24. The World Health Organization has classified it as a “variant of concern”. While the health body has said that it is unclear whether the Omicron variant is more transmissible than others, the strain is now present in more than 10 countries.
Meanwhile, Arora on Monday said that the task force has also developed immunisation plans for children, ANI reported.
“A prioritisation process is also being built so that children with co-morbidities will be given priority and healthy children will be vaccinated,” he said. “This plan will be made public soon.”
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