Just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the beginning of a COVID-19 vaccination drive for children aged 15 to 18 years and booster shots for medical professionals, frontline workers, and people with comorbidities aged 60 years and above, the Health Ministry released a statement on Tuesday to clarify misconceptions.

“Doctor certificate/prescription not required to establish comorbidity; doctors advice an indication for 60+ persons to consult with their doctors before opting for a precaution dose,” read the ministry’s statement.

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The ministry also clarified that those on election duty in poll-bound states will be treated as frontline workers and hence will be eligible for the booster dose starting January 10.

As for children’s vaccination, which starts from January 3, the ministry said, “All established protocols regarding vaccination are to be followed for the 15-18 years age group; beneficiaries are to wait for half-an-hour when they will be monitored for AEFI and will be eligible for the 2nd dose only after 28 days.” Children in the aforementioned age group can get vaccinated either at walk-in vaccination centres or by registering for vaccination using the CoWIN app.

With COVID-19 cases rising across the country, courtesy of the highly transmissible omicron variant, countries across the world are imposing restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. Since the omicron variant bypasses the immunity granted by COVID-19 vaccines, governments across the world are relying on booster doses of the vaccine to stimulate anti-body production in people.

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American pharma and biotech giant Moderna has announced that they are working on a new vaccine to help inoculate people against the omicron variant. The new vaccine is scheduled to go into the trial phase in early 2022, so it is unlikely to go into mass production before mid-2022. Till then, the pharma giant has advised people to take booster shots, saying that the extra jab serves as the “first line of defence” against COVID-19.