Paid Booster Shots For All Adults From Sunday
Those above 18 years of age will have to pay for their Covid booster shot unless they are above 60, healthcare workers or frontline staff.
New Delhi: Coronavirus booster shots will be available to all adults from Sunday at private vaccination centres, the government announced on Friday.
The order means that unlike the booster shots announced for healthcare workers, frontline staff and those above 60, the third jab will not be free for most adults.
“Ongoing free vaccination programme through government vaccination centres for first and second dose as well as Precaution Dose to Healthcare Workers, Frontline Workers and 60+ population would continue and would be accelerated,” a government statement said.
About 96 per cent of the 15 and above population in the country have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while about 83 per cent of has received both doses, it added.
The decision to open up the booster to all adults comes as infections grow in many countries and some Indians find it hard to travel abroad without a third dose.
Countries such as Israel, for example, do not consider vaccination complete in the absence of booster doses.
Despite concerns over new mutations of the coronavirus, including the XE variant, Infections in India have fallen to their lowest in more than a year, with 1,109 new cases reported in the past 24 hours and 43 deaths.
India’s total infections now stand at more than 4.3 crore, with 5.21 lakh deaths.
