New Delhi: A comprehensive policy on additional doses of the Covid vaccine for immunocompromised people will be developed over the next two weeks, said Dr. NK Arora, chairman of the country’s Covid working group.
The vaccination advisory group along with another on vaccinating the country’s 44 million children. The prioritization process is underway so children with comorbidities will get the vaccine first, he said.
When asked about a booster of the vaccine for the elderly, which is now being given in different countries, particularly given the advent of the new Omicron Covid, Arora said that a boost to 94 crore doses is not possible overnight. ” However, he stated that there was no shortage of doses in the country.
Considering that even now 12-15 million Indians have not received a single dose of the vaccine and 30 million people have not received a second dose, he said that there is an urgent need at the moment to proceed with her vaccination, which is the “most important and effective tool that has been concluded as a priority.
” Furthermore, given the new variant, it is important to see how it fares against existing vaccines, of those India has a large supply, In addition, one must take into account the epidemiological state of a country which is unique he said.
“We look forward to the next two weeks as laboratories across the country, some of which are our own laboratories, work on the effectiveness of the immune response generated by our current vaccines Covaxin, Covishield and other vaccines with the (new variant ) of the virus and the degree of neutralization of the virus, “he said.
India has not yet reported any cases of Omicron, which recently emerged in South Africa. Suspicious cases have been reported in a few other countries. Two South African nationals who arrived in Bangalore earlier this month tested positive for Covid and one of them became infected with the Delta strain.
The other tested positive for a strain of Covid “other than Delta,” said Karnataka Health Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar, adding that the test samples were sent for genome sequencing and further investigation.
if you look closely at the Omicron strain. Earlier yesterday, Dr. Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), that Omicron, a highly infectious variant, may already be present in India and it may only be a matter of time before what happens. is connected.