All adults will be offered free booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at government vaccination centres for 75 days starting July 15, the Centre announced on Wednesday.

The Centre had three months ago allowed all adults to take booster doses on payment at private vaccination centres but uptake has been lower than expected.

More than 820 million people — nearly 90 per cent of India’s adults — have been fully vaccinated with two doses but less than 6 per cent of adults have opted for boosters so far.

A survey earlier this month found that 42 per cent of a sample of around 15,200 people from 351 districts were “not convinced about the benefits of the precaution dose”. But 14 per cent said they would take the booster if it was free.

India’s seven-day average of daily new infections has more than doubled from 7,000 cases to 17,000 cases over the past month. “Covid is very much around and the circulation of sublineages makes it desirable for all eligible adults to go for the precaution dose at the earliest,” said Narendra K. Arora, an adviser to the Centre on vaccination policy.