Precaution dose of COVID vaccine for diplomats under discussion: Sources

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], March 31 (ANI): The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is discussing the administration of the precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccine for diplomats, sources told ANI on Thursday.
This development has come after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) urged the Health Ministry to allow precaution doses for those travelling to Europe, who had taken their second (final) dose of vaccine more than 270 days before the proposed date of travel, sources said.
Recently, the Government of India has allowed international flights, while several countries have imposed curbs on those who haven't received a booster dose of the COVID vaccine yet.
Currently, only healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people above 60 years of age are allowed to receive a booster dose of the COVID vaccine. According to the sources, the expansion of the booster dose, beyond the identified group, will depend on scientific evidence.
So far, a cumulative of 2,30,11,793 precaution doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered to the identified group, of which, 1,34,379 beneficiaries were administered a precaution vaccine dose in the last 24 hours.
As per the Union Health Ministry, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 184.06 crore (1,84,06,55,005) on Thursday.
Meanwhile, following a continuous downward trend, India's active caseload declined to 14,307 active cases today, constituting 0.03 per cent of the country's total positive cases.
Consequently, India's recovery rate was recorded at 98.76 per cent.
In the last 24 hours, 1,225 new cases were reported with 1,594 recovered patients, cumulatively 4,24,89,004 recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic.
A total of 6,07,987 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, cumulatively 78,91,64,922 tests conducted so far, in the country.
There has been a decline in the weekly and daily positivity rates too. The weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 0.23 per cent whereas the daily positivity rate is reported to be 0.20 per cent. (ANI)