As Covid cases rise, govt moves to jab youth, pushes boosters

NEW DELHI: Amid a spurt in daily Covid-19 cases over the last few weeks, the government's expert committee is mulling strategies to scale up coverage of its vaccine among adolescents of 12-17 years of age as well as precaution dose among adults, which has substantially slowed down.

Data shows around 62% of adolescents in 15-17 years age group have been fully immunised, but only about 26% of 7.11 crore adolescents in the 12-14 years have received both doses of

Covid

vaccines. The coverage of precaution dose remains abysmally low despite many states making it available free for adults. Only around 3.77 crore precaution doses were administered till Thursday morning, according to official data.

The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) is likely to meet at the end of June to discuss measures to push

vaccination

coverage.

Recently, the health ministry initiated the second round of its door-to-door 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign to expedite full Covid vaccine coverage and administration of 'precaution dose'. The campaign will last till July 31.

Apart from Covid vaccines, NTAGI is also expected to deliberate on measures for scaling up of routine immunisation coverage among children. Routine paediatric immunisation has also witnessed a significant dip during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the latest two rounds of

Intensive Mission Indradhanush

has helped the drive, the coverage of certain vaccines including measles rubella continues to be below 90%.

"Routine immunisation programme has to be strengthened as vaccine coverage among the paediatric population got impacted due to Covid-19. The latest two rounds of

Mission Indradhanush

has helped enhance coverage in various high-risk districts but it needs further push to achieve 95% coverage," a senior official told TOI.

Health officials are particularly focused on expanding the coverage of measles rubella vaccine as the government has set a target of 2023 to eliminate the disease.