More than five crucial meetings are lined up in the next three days as the Narendra Modi government gears up to launch vaccination drive for teenagers and booster doses for the elderly, News18.com has learnt.
The country’s two top panels on Covid-19 vaccination — the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) — are expected to meet and conduct meetings separately to streamline the execution of the drive.
Top bureaucrats of the Health Ministry will conduct another set of meetings on recommendations that will be submitted by the committees.
“Followed by the panels’ meet and then their meeting with the Health Ministry, we are likely to conduct one or two meetings with the Prime Minister’s Office as the drive is closely monitored by them,” a senior official at the Health Ministry told News18.com.
The panels will be taking crucial decisions like which vaccine will be used as booster dose and what will be the ideal gap between the last dose and the precautionary dose for the elderly population.
“For children, Covaxin and Zydus Cadila both have been approved. Till now, the understanding is we will be using both. However, we need to look at the stock of both vaccines available to decide the final strategies.”
The officer further explained that the decisions need to streamline the vaccination process for children and elderly without hindering the ongoing process for first and second dose administration.
“There must be enough Covaxin for those who are due for a second dose or come for the first dose before we divert its manufacturing towards children. Similarly, we must have enough ZyCoVD doses in hand before we announce its utilisation.”
Another officer in the Health Ministry explained that the studies have globally shown that it is always better to have a booster dose different from the one that was primarily administered.
“We have options in hand, including SII’s Covovax and Sputnik V Light. Corbevax may also be available soon for boosters apart from Covishield and Covaxin to be used as boosters. All these important decisions will be taken by the December 30 in all probability. This is the reason why urgent meetings of all scientific panels have been called,” he said.
In a surprise address on Christmas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would start giving the third “precautionary dose” to healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60 with comorbidities from January 10. He also announced vaccination for children aged 15-18 from January 3.
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