The booster dose, which the Centre is calling precautionary dose, will have to be the same as the first two Covid19 vaccine jabs, the health ministry announced on Wednesday ruling out a combination strategy for now. The drive for the third vaccine dose will take off on January 10, starting with healthcare and frontline workers as well as people over 60 years of age with comorbidities.
The much-awaited announcement on booster dose coincided with India witnessing an exponential increase in cases. Daily infections have risen 6.3 times in the last eight days. The country reported 58,097 fresh cases on Wednesday, taking the total active cases to 214,004. The daily positivity rate has touched 5 per cent. At least one Omicron death, in Rajasthan, was also confirmed READ MORE