Policy on booster and additional dose to be announced in two weeks

 

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As the new COVID-19 variant "Omicron" continues to boil up tensions throughout the country, COVID-19 task force chairman Dr N K Arora on Monday informed that a comprehensive policy on booster and additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be announced in two weeks.

"National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) is coming up with a comprehensive policy on the booster and additional doses in the next two weeks" said Dr Arora.

"The policy will deal with who will require the vaccine, when and how. This needs to be seen in the context that a new variant is coming and with time only we will get to know more information about it. Therefore relevance and effectiveness of the current vaccine will also become apparent with time only" he added.

He also clarified the difference between a booster dose and additional dose.

"A booster dose is given in predefined period after two primary doses. Whereas, an additional dose is only given to those people who have problems with their immune function even after the primary doses. If a person's immune function is not appropriately built, you give them an additional dose. So these are two different things" explained Dr Arora.

The Omicron variant, which is a new variant was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021 and appeared on November 14 in South Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it as variant of concern.