Updated December 25th, 2021 at 22:53 IST
COVID-19: Who is eligible for booster doses in India? Check the staggering stats here
Since the adults aged above 60 with healthcare and frontline workers are ready for vaccination from January 10, the number of vaccine recipients in staggering.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement on Saturday wherein he gave the green flag for the much-anticipated booster doses for healthcare workers and comorbidity-ridden adults aged over 60. While a majority of the population still remains to be fully vaccinated with two mandatory doses, PM Modi said that the additional doses will help the nation better prepare against the Omicron variant. In his address, the PM said that nearly 61% of the adult population in India have been vaccinated with both doses of the coronavirus vaccine and as much as 90% of the population has been jabbed with the first dose.
Staggering number of adults ready for a booster dose
Since the adults aged above 60 along with healthcare and frontline workers are ready for vaccination starting January 10, 2022, the prevailing numbers for eligible vaccine recipients are staggering. Today's announcement has made as many as 9,24,23,935 senior citizens eligible for the 'precaution dose', as PM Modi called it. In addition to this, 96,78,237 healthcare workers and 1,68,31,027 are now in line to get jabbed with the booster shot. In addition to this particular age group, children aged between 15 to 18 years will also be eligible for a vaccine shot starting January 3.
In order to save the public from panicking, PM Modi also reviewed the state of India's healthcare system nearly one and half year after the inception of the COVID pandemic. He said the country now has a strong healthcare system with 18 lakh isolation beds, 5 lakh oxygen supported beds, 1.40 lakh ICU beds, 90,000 pediatric ICU & non-ICU beds. Besides, there are more than 3000 working PSA oxygen plants currently in the country and 4 lakh oxygen cylinders have been distributed throughout the nation.
Image: Unsplash
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Published December 25th, 2021 at 22:53 IST
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