COVID-19 Booster Dose in India: How To Register Online, Eligibility, Guidelines, Dose Time Gap Details

New Delhi, Jan 10: India began administering the precaution dose of Covid vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers and comorbid people aged 60 and above from today in a bid to stymie the coronavirus spread driven by its Omicron variant.

Personnel deployed for election duty in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa have also been designated as frontline workers.

An estimated 1.05 crore healthcare and 1.9 crore frontline workers, and 2.75 crore comorbid people in the 60 plus age group would be administered the precaution dose according to schedule, Health Ministry sources said.

How to register for a precautionary dose online?

Online appointments for precaution dose began on the CoWin portal. However, there is also the option of an onsite appointment.

• All senior citizens aged 60 years or above with comorbidities will be able to get the precaution dose using their current Co-WIN account.
• Beneficiaries can register in advance, on-site, or through the Co-WIN Facilitated Cohort Registration procedure.
• Eligibility will be based on the date of administration of 2nd dose as recorded in the Co-WIN system.
• Verification will be done preferably using Aadhaar.

Apart from Aadhaar, other IDs approved by the MoHFW are:

1. EPIC

2. Passport

3. Driving license

4. PAN Card

5. Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR

6. Pension Document with Photograph

Eligibility:

Only healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people over the age of 60 with comorbidities are eligible to register for the 'precaution' dose. Only if you have certain co-morbidities will you be eligible for the 'precaution' shot.

Individuals will be eligible for the third dose after a 9-month wait, or 39 weeks from the date of the second dose.

Guidelines

There would be no mix-and-match of vaccines for the precaution dose. The beneficiaries would be given the same vaccine as their previous two jabs.

CoWIN will send reminder messages to all those eligible for this dose and after administration of the shot, it will be noted in the digital vaccination certificate.

Those aged 60 years and above with comorbidities will not be required to produce or submit any certificate from a doctor at the time of administration of the precaution dose of vaccine.

Dose Gap

The gap between the date of administering the second dose of vaccine and the precaution dose would be nine months (39 weeks).