Aaditya Thackeray requests Centre to reduce minimum age for Covid-19 vaccination to 15

Aaditya Thackeray. File pic

As Omicron cases surge in the country, Maharashtra cabinet minister for environment and climate change, Aaditya Thackeray, has written to the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandviya, requesting the ministry to reduce the minimum age of vaccination from 18 years to 15 years.

Thackeray also suggested that the Centre should allow the front-line workers and healthcare workers, who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, to avail a booster shot at their "studied desire".

Additionally, the letter also stated that if the gap between the two doses is reduced to four weeks, it will help Mumbai cover 100 per cent population with the second dose by mid-January 2022. According to the letter, the city has covered 100 per cent of its eligible population with the first dose and over 73 per cent with the second dose.

The Mahashtra minister wrote on Twitter that the suggestions were placed after various interactions with doctors and those closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the country.

In the meantime, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is recovering from a cervical spine surgery, met the state Covid-19 task force on Monday evening to over Omicron concerns.