oppn parties Free Booster Doses For 75 Days Is A Welcome Move

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  • Supreme Court will appoint an observer for the mayoral poll in Chandigarh
  • Government makes it compulsory for plastic carry bag makers to put a QR or barcode with their details on such bags
  • GBS outbreak in Pune leaves 73 ill with 14 on ventilator. GBS is a rare but treatable autoimmune disease
  • Madhya Pradesh government banned sale and consumption of liquor at 19 religious sites including Ujjain and Chitrakoot
  • Odisha emerges at the top in the fiscal health report of states while Haryana is at the bottom
  • JSW Steel net profit takes a massive hit of 70% in Q3
  • Tatas buy 60% stake in Pegatron, the contractor making iPhone's in India
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  • Bumrah, Jadeja and Yashasvi Jaiswal make the ICC Test team of the year even as no Indian found a place in the ODI squad
  • India take on England in the second T20 today at Chennai. They lead the 5-match series 1-0
  • Ravindra Jadeja excels in Ranji Trophy, takes 12 wickets in the match as Saurashtra beat Delhi by 10 wickets. All other Team India stars disappoint in the national tournament
  • Madhya Pradesh HC says collectors must not apply NSA "under political pressure and without application of mind"
  • Oxfam charged by CBI over violation of FCRA
  • Indian students in the US have started quitting part-time jobs (which are not legally allowed as per visa rules) over fears of deportation
  • Enforcement Directorate is reported to have frozen nearly Rs 500cr in the accounts of 8 payment gateways including Paytm, Razorpay and PayU
Nation celebrates Republic Day with pomp and vigour //////// Dazzling parade showcasing India's military might and culture in Delhi with Indonesian President as chief guest
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Free Booster Doses For 75 Days Is A Welcome Move

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-07-13 16:30:52

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

In a welcome move, the Centre has announced that on the occasion of Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal being celebrated for 75 years of Indian Independence, all adults will be given free Covid booster doses from 15th of July for 75 days, that is till 26th of September. Since the vaccination drive has lost steam and since free booster doses are currently being given to only senior citizens, frontline and healthcare workers, this is a good decision which will perhaps make people take the booster dose.

Ideally, the booster dose should have been free for all at government facilities, with an option for those who wished to pay for it to get jabbed at a private facility. But the government had allocated only Rs 5000cr in 2022-23 for jabs to 15-17-age-group and senior citizens, frontline and healthcare workers, with a promise to increase the allocation if needed. Since tax collections have improved, the government should have allocated Rs 10000cr more for vaccination this fiscal and that could have provided free booster doses to all adults at the reduced price at which the government gets the doses.

However, since that was not done, this limited window for booster doses should be used to bring the vaccination drive back on track. Statistics show that less than 31 percent of senior citizens have received the booster dose and, alarmingly, less than 1 percent in the age group of 18-59 has received it nationally. This needs to be changed and in these 75 days, the government should try to jab as many people as it can by launching a massive vaccination drive as it was done in the initial days.