Booster dose: Dose gap, natural infection slow offtake among 60-plus

Experts are also questioning the nine-month gap between the second and the third doses

About one-third of the 60-plus population with co-morbidities has so far received their precaution dose of vaccination, since it was launched on January 10. The tepid response, experts say, is due to a variety of reasons, from the long gap of nine months from the second dose, natural infection that occurred in a large number of people during the third wave and in several cases vaccine hesitancy.

As a proportion of the estimated 27 million elderly in the 60-plus with co-morbidity, only 34 per cent have got the third dose since the drive was launched on January 10. Of the