The Centre is rethinking over the relevance of the precaution Covid-19 dose to all the categories. Currently the jabs are being administered to the frontline and healthcare workers along with 60 plus population in the country.

The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) for Covid-19 held a high level meeting with NITI Aayog a day ago and sources said that the high-level panel members were skeptical about the benefits of the third dose being administered. "The NTAGI presented some research papers on third doses administered in several countries which have not helped in curbing infection, to the NITI Aayog in the meeting", a source told .

Some cases of getting infected even after a third dose have also been reported in India. The source said that the experts from NTAGI have assessed the data from the countries where booster doses have been administered. It has also studied the impacts of the third dose against the infection.

The NTAGI is expected to meet the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) next week with some more fact finding papers on the third dose, source said. However, the policy on booster or precaution dose could be revisited for the extension of the policy among other age group beneficiaries. As per the source, the precaution dose may continue among healthcare and frontline workers and 60 plus population.

The NTAGI for Covid-19 also met WHO officials and said that India “will not blindly follow others” on its booster dose policy.

During the meeting, officials assessed real-world data from countries across the world that are administering booster doses to their population.

 “Boosters have not helped the cases in any country that has administered the third dose. Besides, we will not blindly follow what other countries have done. We have to look at our local epidemiology and science, and our decisions have to be based on that assessment,” the NTAGI members discussed

Apart from local data, public health experts are also analyzing the infection patterns, behaviour of the virus, emerging variants and viral loads along with breakthrough and reinfections.