Govt considering Covid booster dose for those travelling overseas

New Delhi: The government may soon allow a precaution dose of Covid vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for education, employment, sports and for attending official or business commitments, official sources said on Saturday.

Discussions are also underway on whether overseas-bound travellers opting for booster dose should receive the shot at private vaccination centres and pay for it, they said.

Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and those aged above 60 are being administered precaution doses of Covid vaccine.

The cumulative Covid vaccine doses administered in thecountry crossed 183 crore on Saturday, the Union Health ministry said. Over 26 lakh vaccine doses have been being administered on Saturday till 7 pm.

With scheduled international flights set to resume from Sunday, the Ministry of External Affairs recently highlighted the travel restrictions being enforced by certain countries in view of the requirement of a third/booster dose and how that is impacting necessary travel of Indian travellers, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The Union Health ministry is also learnt to have received representations for allowing administration of precaution dose for those seeking to travel for employment opportunities, educational purpose or for attending official/business commitments, etc.

"In view of these, the Health ministry is actively considering to allow booster/precaution dose of COVID vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for jobs, admission in foreign educational institutions, participating in sports tournaments, in bilateral, multilateral meetings as part of India's official delegation or for attending business commitments," an official source added.

No official directive in this regard has been issued by the Union Health ministry yet.

The prioritisation and sequencing of the dose would be based on the completion of nine months from the date of administration of the second dose as per the existing guidelines.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16, 2021, with the healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of the frontline workers started from February 2 last year.