Covid-19: Booster doses for 60-plus group surge in Maharashtra

Pune: The state’s booster or precaution dose consumption has surged with the initiation of the doorstep Covid-19 vaccination programme. Going by the latest report of the state health department, nearly 3.16lakh residents over 60 years of age across 36 districts have availed of the benefit of the third dose since the beginning of the special Har Ghar Dastak drive on June 1.

“We aim to administer this precaution dose to every eligible person over 60 years in the state and cover the maximum people by the end of July,” said state immunisation officer Dr Sachin Desai.

The response to the precaution dose had gone down drastically after Covid cases dipped between February and May. The cases have started slightly rising over the last two weeks, which is also prompting people to seek a booster dose.

Currently, only residents over 60 years of age and healthcare/frontline workers are eligible for a free booster dose.

Citizens in the 18-59 age bracket are not privy to the free booster shot under the country’s Covid vaccination programme, and have to bear the cost of the shot at designated private hospitals.

This is also one of the prominent reasons why most districts have registered extremely low consumption of the booster dose in the 18-59 age bracket, while a few have recorded zero jabs. The Union government allowed the booster shot for the 18-59 age group at private centres from April 10 this year.

Earlier in June, state health minister Rajesh Tope had asked the Centre to give the booster dose for free for the younger group to push up vaccination numbers.