New Delhi: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that adolescents aged 15-18 would be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination from January 3, a pediatrician has said that children above the age of 5 would be vaccinated against the next disease. needed.
In an address to the nation, the PM also said that frontline and health workers and senior citizens above 60 years of age, with co-morbidities on the advice of doctors, would be eligible for a “precautionary” or third dose from January 10 next. Will be The year.
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Dr Dhiren Gupta, Pediatric Pulmonologist, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi told ANI, “It is a welcome decision. The next plan should be to vaccinate children above the age of 5 years. Pediatricians should take these children to their clinics.” should be allowed to vaccinate in
Gupta stressed that even five-year-olds need to be vaccinated against the deadly disease.
“Not only should we target children above the age of 13, but we should also target those over the age of 5. This should be our next plan. If we want to expedite the immunization process, all pediatricians should be aware of these children. should be allowed to vaccinate in their clinics.” she added.
Gupta said most children in this age group go to pediatric clinics and the process of vaccination could be expedited “instead of being limited to a few vaccination centres”.
In fact, Gupta mentioned that a “precautionary dose” of the Covid-19 vaccine should be given to health care and frontline workers before it is announced by PM Modi.
“But why wait till January 10. Every day is important in a pandemic. We know that omicron is growing at a rapid pace. We will get variations of this virus. It takes about three weeks for a booster dose to make enough antibodies. Booster vaccination should begin within two or three days. Considering the entire population, we should start it at the earliest.”
“The decision to take the precautionary dose will strengthen the confidence of the health service and frontline workers,” he said.
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