New Delhi

The third dose of Covaxin holds promise, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Sunday just a day before the government plans to administer 'precautionary' doses of COVID-19 vaccines to frontline workers, healthcare workers, and senior citizens with co-morbidities.

"Third dose of COVAXIN holds promise," ICMR tweeted on Sunday. The medical research body highlighted the benefits of getting Covaxin's precautionary dose. It said, "Reassuring information on safety and immunogenicity of a booster dose of Covaxin administered six months after completion of a two-dose primary vaccination series with Covaxin."

"Good neutralising antibody titre detected against homologous and heterologous SARS-CoV 2 variants following booster. Reactogenicity in both vaccine and placebo arm of the trial was minimal and comparable. No serious adverse events were reported," the tweet said.

On December 25, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that from January 3, 2022 vaccination will start for the children in the age group of 15-18 years and further announced administration of precaution dose for healthcare and frontline workers from January 10, 2022.

"This has been done in the light of the amount of time that the frontline workers and health care workers spend in the service of COVID-19 infected patients. In India, this has been called 'precaution dose', not booster dose. The decision on precaution dose will strengthen the confidence of healthcare and frontline workers," the Prime Minister's office said.

The Prime Minister also announced that option of precaution dose will be available to senior citizens above 60 years of age with co-morbidities on the advice of their doctors from January 10, 2022.

With the administration of more than 89 lakh doses (89,28,316) vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 151.57 crore (1,51,57,60,645) as per provisional reports till 7 am today, the health ministry said.