Delhi rolls up sleeves for booster drive: Stocks in place, say centres

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After the Union health ministry on Friday announced that Covid-19 precautionary dose, or booster dose, will be available to the 18+ population from April 10 at all private vaccination centres, the vaccinators in these centres have said they are fully prepared to carry out the task.

The decision to open the third dose for all comes at a time when China is seeing a fresh surge in infections, though India’s pandemic situation is under control.

A senior official of the Delhi government’s health department said since the health ministry’s orders have opened booster doses only in private centres, government centres in the national capital will continue their vaccination process as before — that means, they will be providing the first and second dose vaccines to adults, teenagers in the 15-18 years age group and children in the 12-15 years age cohort, along with booster shots for senior citizens, health-care and frontline workers who have completed nine months since their second vaccine dose.

“There won’t be much change in our vaccination centres because the order is targeted at paid precautionary doses in private centres. We will, however, continue our booster dose drive for senior citizens and frontline workers, the same as we were doing for the last three months,” the health official said, asking not to be named.

Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director, Max Healthcare, said, “We have been at the forefront among private health-care players in administering Covid vaccinations. With the government allowing the third dose (booster dose), we are fully prepared to extend our support and carry it out. Vaccination centres at our hospitals are ready to administer the booster doses. We welcome this move as and this will provide stronger protection against Covid.”

Dr Jyoti Mishra, medical superintendent and unit head at Aakash Healthcare, said people who wish to receive the precautionary dose from their centre in Dwarka need to register themselves on the government’s Co-WIN app and they will be given the precautionary doses on a walk-in basis, without having to book appointments.

“At our hospital, adults will receive Covaxin and children will receive Corbevax doses. Since the beginning of the Covid vaccination drive, we have a designated vaccination area to separate healthy people from the sick and also dedicated staff for administering the vaccines and managing the centres,” Dr Mishra said.

Data from the government’s Co-WIN dashboard shows that as of Friday, Delhi had 411 Covid vaccination centres, of which 320 were government centres and 91 were run by private players. It is in these 91 centres that the precautionary doses will be administered. Government data also shows that between January 10 (when the precautionary doses were opened for senior citizens and frontline workers) and April 8, 521,497 booster doses have been administered in Delhi.

Dr Bishnu Panigrahi, group head (medical strategy and operations), Fortis Healthcare, which will provide the precautionary doses at all six of their hospitals in Delhi and NCR, said, “Looking at how a lot of countries are again witnessing virulent Covid-19 waves and with the emergence of new covid variants, I think it is a step in the right direction at the right time. The precautionary dose will safeguard people above 18 years and, most importantly, the ones who have co-morbidities from infectious stages of the disease.”

Independent health experts, however, continued to question the need for booster doses in healthy adults.

Dr Mathuram Santosham, senior advisor at the International Vaccine Access Centre and professor at the department of international health and paediatrics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, US, said reserve vaccines are usually advised to be used for the more vulnerable population as boosters instead of administering them to healthy adults.

“There is not enough evidence to prove that an additional booster shot is beneficial in a healthy adult. Their immune system is anyway much stronger, which can fight the infection more effectively as compared to the older and the more vulnerable population,” said Dr Santosham.


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