VACCINATION

NRIs and Sputnik beneficiaries unable to get boosters now

Neha Madaan TNN

Pune : Thousands of NRIs, who took Covid vaccines other than Covishield or Covaxin and are back in India, now face a unique problem: they are unable to get boosters. Even those who took the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is Covishield in India, are in a fix because their details are not on CoWin.

Sumit Sachdeva, a working professional from Mumbai, said: “My mother was in Australia last year where she got two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. She later returned to India and is now due for her precaution dose. But when we visited a hospital, we were told she can’t get one because there’s no way to register on CoWin the doses she took in Australia. ”

Many NRIs had taken vaccines such as Pfizer abroad. Scores of them had also moved back to India. But they’re unable to get boost- ers as the government only allowed homologous doses.

Asenior official from the health ministry said it would not be possible to import foreign vaccines for a set of beneficiaries. The official, however, added: “The ministry has been getting queries from beneficiaries on this issue. And the matter may be discussed soon by officials. ”

Those who took Sputnik are also having trouble getting boosters. There has been no update from the health ministry on Sputnik Vprecaution doses.