The government may soon allow a precautionary dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for education, employment, sports and for attending official or business commitments, official sources told PTI on March 26. Discussions are also underway on whether overseas-bound travellers opting for the booster dose should receive the shot at private vaccination centres and pay for it, they said. Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and those aged above 60 are being administered precautionary doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

With scheduled international flights set to resume from March 26, the Ministry of External Affairs recently highlighted the travel restrictions being enforced by certain countries in view of the requirement of a third/booster dose and how that is impacting necessary travel of Indian citizens, sources with knowledge of the matter told PTI. The Union Health Ministry has also received representations for allowing administration of the precautionary dose for those seeking to travel for employment opportunities, educational purposes or for attending official/business commitments, etc.

"In view of these, the Health Ministry is actively considering to allow booster/precaution dose of COVID vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for jobs, admission in foreign educational institutions, participating in sports tournaments, in bilateral, multilateral meetings as part of India's official delegation or for attending business commitments," an official source told PTI. No official directive in this regard has been issued by the Union Health Ministry yet. The prioritisation and sequencing of the dose would be based on the completion of nine months (39 weeks) from the date of administration of the second dose, as per the existing guidelines.