- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
WITH several Indian states seeking rollout of booster doses of Covid vaccines for adults and vaccination for kids, the country’s health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in the parliament on Friday (3) that the government will move toward on the two issues only on the basis of recommendations given by its two expert groups that administer vaccination.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the decisions will not be influenced by financial or political considerations, the minister told the parliament a day after the government confirmed detection of the first two cases of Omicron, the new variant of the deadly virus, in India.
“The parliament wants to know when the government will administer booster doses as well as the timeline for children’s vaccination. There are two options before us: one is a political decision and the second is a scientific decision,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.
“The government spends Rs 2.5 lakh crore (£25 billion) to give free foodgrains to the people of this country. We are giving a Rs 1.5 lakh crore (£15 billion) subsidy to farmers. The question (of when the Government clears booster doses) is not economical. It is also not a political question,” Mandaviya said.
“Our experts will take a final decision on the question of vaccinating children and giving booster doses (to the adult population). Based on their recommendation, the government will move forward. This is my clear reply on the floor of Parliament,” he added.
The National Technical Advisory Group in India (NTAGI) is the government’s apex advisory body on immunisation and it makes recommendations on policy and programmes based on technical review of scientific evidence.
The NTAGI’s recommendations are placed before the National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration for Covid (NEGVAC). The NEGVAC takes the final call on the rollout, prioritisation and logistics related to vaccination.
