Bhubaneswar: Amid the fear of the XE variant of COVID and a fresh surge in cases in China, the booster dose for all adults in the country was rolled out through Private Vaccination Centres on Sunday.
The need for the third dose was felt since the immunity produced by two doses of the vaccine wanes gradually. The emergence of newer variants of the virus made it all the more important. The objective of a booster dose is to restore vaccine effectiveness.
Earlier, only healthcare workers, frontline workers and those above the age of 60 were eligible for the third dose.
PRECAUTION DOSE
The precaution dose is the third dose of the same vaccine earlier administered against the infection. If you were administered Covishield at the time of your first and second dose, the booster jab will be of the same vaccine.
ELIGIBILITY
All those above 18 years of age and completed nine months or 39 weeks of receiving the second dose would be eligible for the precaution dose. It is expected that the Co-Win platform would send out SMS to beneficiaries for availing the booster dose.
REGISTRATION
No fresh registrations are required for precaution dose as all due beneficiaries are already registered on the CoWIN portal. The beneficiaries can either book precaution dose slot by logging in to the CoWIN portal with the pre-registered mobile number and selecting the closest vaccination centre or choose to opt for walk-in registration.
PRICE
A single dose of the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will cost private hospitals Rs 225 and the government had announced that they can charge a maximum of Rs 150 as service charge over and above it.
