New Delhi, December 24:
The government will conduct a medical study – on 3,000 fully vaccinated individuals – to assess the efficacy of a Covid vaccine booster against the Omicron variant, Health Ministry sources said Friday.
To be carried out by the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Haryana’s Faridabad, news of the study comes amid increasing global worry over the Omicron strain.
Last week the government told the Delhi High Court it was considering all evidence related to the need for and justification of boosters. Top government bodies on immunisation and vaccine administration were reviewing all available information on the subject, the court was told.
Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, have already started a third round of inoculations. Israel, in fact, is contemplating a fourth round of vaccinations.
Worried nations have also announced restrictions on travel and movement, although many are wary of the (considerable) economic cost of a full-fledged lockdown and are banking on boosters.
On Wednesday, Dr VK Paul, the chief of India’s Covid task force, said the rollout of boosters in India would be based on a scientific understanding of Omicron and the extent of its vaccine evasion.
Last week too, the government had said scientists were considering all aspects of the booster dose, but it also underlined the need to ensure maximum possible primary vaccination coverage – that is, ensuring all eligible people have received the mandatory two doses.
“… the fact remains that all this (booster shots) comes after we have provided primary vaccination coverage to the maximum possible population and that remains the foremost goal,” Dr Paul said.
This week US pharma giant AstraZeneca, whose Covid vaccine is manufactured and sold in India as Covishield, said a third dose significantly boosted neutralising antibody levels against Omicron.
This is based on initial studies from the UK’s Oxford University, the vaccine development partner.
Before this, both Pfizer and Moderna said their vaccines (neither is available in India as yet) also stood up to the Omicron test; Moderna said a booster dose of its jab also increased antibody levels.
News of a study to check on the effect of a Covid vaccine booster also comes 10 days after Health Ministry sources told NDTV a third shot – recommended by several foreign countries and medical experts – would not necessarily protect you from the Omicron variant.
The sources pointed to Omicron cases in Israel, the US and other countries to cast doubt over the extent to which a third vaccine dose can guard against the virus.
India has, so far, reported 358 cases of the Omicron variant. 122 of these cases were reported in the past 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data said this morning. Maharashtra has recorded the most cases (88), followed by Delhi with 67, Telangana 38, Tamil Nadu 34, Karnataka 31 and Gujarat 30.
All of this comes on the heels of the World Health Organization saying Omicron is more transmissible than Delta – which is responsible for most of the world’s coronavirus infections.
