Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the rollout of a ‘precautionary dose’ or booster shot against COVID-19 from January 10, 2022. However, the booster shots will be administered to a specific group for now. These include frontline workers, doctors, and senior citizens with comorbidities. According to official data available, there could over 137 million senior citizens would could be eligible for the booster dose. But those who are above the age of 60 years and planning to get the third shot must keep certain things in mind.
Document required for a booster dose
Senior citizens, who are eligible for this dose, will have to show a medical certificate stating that they have specified comorbidities in order to get the booster shot against COVID-19. The medical certificate needs to be signed by a registered medical practitioner. The medical certificate can either be produced at the vaccination centre or can be scanned and uploaded on CoWIN portal.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Health Authority (NHA) Dr RS Sharma said that process is going to be the same as the one followed when Covid vaccination was started for those above the age of 45 years with comorbidities.
What will count as comorbidities?
Dr Sharma said that there is already a detail about diseases that are considered as comorbidities. This was published during the initial phase of the vaccination drive.
Explaining about it, Dr Sharma said that the list includes diabetes, kidney disease or someone who is on dialysis, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, sickle cell disease, stem cell transplant, muscular dystrophy, prolonged use of immunosuppressant drugs, or person with the severe respiratory disease with hospitalizations in last two years.
It is also being said that there needs to be a gap of at least 9 months between the primary and additional doses. However, the details are being worked out. It must be noted that the inoculation drive for senior citizens started on March 1, 2021. If this rule applies, those who were inoculated in the first month of the vaccination drive will be eligible to get the third dose.