The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the conditions for receiving a COVID-19 vaccine shot after contracting remains the same for those registering to get the precautionary doses that were started on January 10, 2022. This means that if any health worker, frontline worker, or person above 60 years of age suffered from COVID-19 between October 2021 to January 2022, they will have to wait for three months to receive the booster dose.
While announcing that they were launching the precautionary doses for this population, the Health ministry had clarified who would be eligible to receive the dose. The government stated that the duration between the second dose and the precautionary dose should be at least nine months. This means that the recipients should have taken the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield by April to be eligible to receive the booster dose.
However, India has seen a surge in cases in the last four weeks which has affected several health workers, frontline workers, and the elderly. In May 2021, the Ministry had announced that those who tested positive for Coronavirus would have to wait for three months post recovery before they took any doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The three-month gap is maintained because people who have contracted the illness have natural immunity against the virus as their body has created a set of antibodies and other types of immunity to tackle the virus when it is attacking the body. It is believed that antibodies start waning after this period and that is when the vaccine's immunity strengthens the body.