A beneficiary receiving a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and national task force members have said the country should focus on completing adult population vaccination rather than booster doses.
Senior scientist and head of Pune's ICMR epidemiology and communicable diseases division, Dr Samiran Panda, told TOI on Saturday that even as there are discussions on booster doses, completion of schedule of the two doses of currently administered intramuscular injection preparation of Covid vaccines under the ongoing immunisation programme will yield the necessary protection against advancement of infection or severe form of the disease that may require hospitalization.
"The priority should be to complete both doses for eligible adults first and then the plan for children can be firmed up through critical analysis of age group and comorbidities,''said Dr Panda. With the country having touched 1 billion vaccine doses on Thursday, he said the way forward was to continue scaling up vaccination and following Covid protocol.
The ICMR scientist said that while vaccines are disease modifying vaccines and do not offer protection against acquisition of infection, use of a mask to prevent occurrence of infection was a must for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. He said a combination of prevention against disease severity and acquisition of infection with the help of vaccines and correct as well as consistent use of masks should be the programme emphasis now. "From a public health perspective this is the need of the hour and the priority should be to complete both doses for eligible adults first," he stressed.
He said besides this planning and programmatic steps as pertinent to children and vaccination can be firmed up through critical analysis, such as which age group to cover first, he said ruling out boosters
Member of the national task force and National Task Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) Covid task force chairman Dr N K Arora told TOI the country should continue to focus on completing adult population vaccination immediately followed by vaccination of children.
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