Vaccine for teen, Precautionary Dose, IMA welcomes PM's decision

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 15-18 years will start from January 3. In his address to the nation Saturday night, the Prime Minister said, healthcare and frontline workers will be provided with precautionary doses from  January 10  next year. People above 60 years of age who have co-morbidities will also have the option to take the booster dose on a recommendation from doctors. This will also start from 10th of next month.  Modi has asked the people to not panic due to new variant of COVID,  Omicron. The Prime Minister said  infections are rising across several nations due to the new variant. The PM urged the citizens to not spread rumours and fake news and cautioned everyone to stay alert. "We have run the largest vaccination drive and we want to work to make it better. We have to strengthen the country against Covid," he said.

He added that there have been a few cases in India as well. He asked people to use masks and sanitize themselves regularly. Modi said , the nation has 18 lakh isolation beds, 5 lakh oxygen supported beds, 1.4 lakh ICU beds and 90,000 special beds for kids. He said there are over 3,000 functional PSA Oxygen plants and 4 lakh cylinders have been provided to all states. He said that apart from research on the vaccine, work is also underway on approval processes, supply chains, distribution, training, IT support system and certification. "Today, more than 61 per cent of India's adult population has received both doses of the vaccine. Similarly, about 90 percent of the adult population has been given a single dose of the vaccine," he said, hailing India's vaccination drive.

Indian Medical Association (IMA) has hailed the announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the precautionary dose of vaccine for healthcare frontline workers. In a statement, IMA said that it is the right step in view of the new variant of concern omicron as there is need to protect our health care frontline workers in all possible ways. IMA appreciates the efforts of the Government in creating the adequate infrastructure needed for this war. It also said that the issue of expediting the PG counseling is the need of the hour to increase the manpower.IMA has also welcomed the much-awaited decision of vaccination for children from 3rd of January. IMA has assured its continuous participation with all infrastructure and manpower to make sure vaccination reaches the last man of this country.