The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) of India would make public a comprehensive policy on extra and booster doses for COVID-19 in the next two weeks, said Dr NK Arora, India’s COVID-19 Task Force Chairman, on Monday.
He has also stated that a strategy to boost the immunity of 44 crore children under the age of 18 will be presented to the country shortly.
He stated that the procedure for administering the vaccination on a priority basis is being worked out so that children with comorbidities can be immunized with the corona vaccine. Dr Arora stated that healthy youngsters will next be given the corona vaccination. This happened only days after a new Covid version, Omicron, with a “horrible” spike profile was discovered in South Africa, causing anxiety throughout the world.
An expert panel has been tasked with developing a policy statement for the country’s third vaccination dosage. This third dosage might be suggested as an extra dose rather than a booster injection.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about booster injections, with experts weighing in on the possibility to improve immunity, particularly in immunocompromised persons. In October, a WHO panel recommended an extra dosage of vaccinations indicated by WHO for those who are severely or moderately immunocompromised and have been immunized.
AIIMS, Delhi, director Dr Randeep Guleria recently stated that India does not need to roll out booster injections of the Covid-19 vaccine for the time being because there is no rise in Covid cases in the nation, indicating that the shots previously delivered are providing protection against the virus.
The policy for the booster dosage will be ready in two weeks.
Dr NK Arora, head of the country’s COVID Task Force, has stated that the government would implement a new policy on the additional dose (booster dose) of the vaccine for severe patients and those with low immunity. This policy will be prepared in two weeks by the National Technical Advisory Group (NTAG). NTAG will also implement a new immunization strategy for the country’s 44 million youngsters.
According to Arora, several labs throughout the country are actively testing the effectiveness of the vaccine currently available in India on the new version. It might take up to two weeks. Only then will we know how effective Covaxin, Covishield, and other vaccinations are against the new virus.
Sick children will be vaccinated in December, and healthy children will be immunized in the following quarter.
Previously, Arora told NDTV that vaccination for youngsters suffering from the condition might begin in December. Corona vaccination of healthy youngsters is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. Arora stated that we will begin immunization of youngsters as soon as possible. When the vaccination rate for children with illnesses reaches 10-15%, we will begin vaccinating healthy children as well.
Booster dose to the elderly in several countries
Dr Arora stated, “Since the new type of Corona was brought to light, booster doses have been provided to the elderly in various nations.” America, the United Kingdom, and Israel are among them. Booster implies we’ll need an additional 94 crore doses. These cannot be made in a single night. There is, however, no lack of vaccination in the country.
According to Arora, 12 to 15 crore individuals in the country have not taken even one dosage of the vaccine. Thirty crore individuals have still to receive the second dosage. It is obvious that we must accelerate immunization. This should be done as soon as possible.
In the country, there is no Omicron case.
To date, no cases of Omicron have been detected in India. Two South African citizens were discovered to be Corona positive after arriving in Bengaluru earlier this month. One of them was discovered to be contaminated with the Delta strain. Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s Health Minister, stated, “Test samples have been forwarded to labs for genetic sequencing.” On the Omicron strain, we are quite careful.
Dr Samiran Panda, Chief of Epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has suggested that Omicron may be prevalent in India already. Panda stated that this variant’s details will only be exposed during testing.
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