India should now focus on vaccinating as many people as possible, Randeep Guleria said.
India should now focus on vaccinating as many people as possible to curb the spread of Covid and the idea of booster doses can wait, AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria said.
The AIIMS chief also said that Sero Survey suggested that there may not be as many coronavirus cases in a likely third Covid wave if vaccinations continue in strength. Till now the country has administered over 60 crore Covid-19 vaccines.
During a virtual programme organized by Integrated Health and Wellbeing Council, Randeep Guleria emphasized on the importance of vaccinating high-risk groups.
"I think we should focus on vaccinating those who have not been vaccinated till now, especially the high-risk group. Still many healthcare workers, many elderly and those with comorbidities have not been vaccinated, and they are the ones who have a chance of having more severe disease and dying because of COVID-19," Mr Guleria said.
Further, the AIIMS chief said that instead of exploring the idea of booster doses, if the focus is on giving vaccines to those who will benefit from it, "we may be able to save lives."
"So I think the issue should be to vaccinate as many individuals as possible, rather than going in for three shots, four shots and trying different things, I think, let's stick to what we know right now, and focus on vaccinating as many people as we can," Mr Guleria said.
The AIIMS chief also said that enough data was not yet available to show the need for booster dose right now in the country. "I don't think we have enough data to show that there is a need for booster right now, remember antibodies is not the only way of giving protection," he said.
Mr Guleria also said that if vaccinations continue in good strength according to the results of the Sero Survey, the country may not have as many cases in the likely third wave of COVID-19.
"My feeling is that if we are able to continue to have good vaccination and looking at the serosurvey data, chances are that we may not have that many cases in the third wave," he said.