Amid Omicron Fears, Government To Study Benefit Of Booster Dose: Sources

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, which the World Health Organization has said is more transmissible than Delta and reduces vaccine efficacy.

Several countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, have already started a third round of inoculations, and France, this evening, said it would also recommend third shots.

Israel, in fact, is contemplating a fourth round of vaccinations.

India has yet to rollout booster doses of the Covid vaccines currently in use - Covishield and Covaxin - despite calls from medical and scientific experts around the world and the WHO.

Last week the government told the Delhi High Court it was considering all evidence related to the need for booster doses. All available information is being reviewed, the court was told.

The government has said, however, underlined the need to ensure maximum possible primary vaccination coverage - that is, ensuring all eligible people have received the mandatory two doses.

India, so far, has administered 140.3 crore vaccine doses, of which 57 crore are second doses.

According to news agency Reuters, this means that only 40.9 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, and only 60.9 per cent has received one dose.

On Tuesday the WHO reiterated its 'boost, boost, boost' warning, as it warned Europe to brace for a "significant surge" in COVID-19 cases. Since it was first detected (in South Africa last month), Omicron has been reported in nearly 40 of 53 nations in the WHO's European region.

"We can see another storm coming," Hans Kluge, the global health body's regional head, told Reuters, "Within weeks, Omicron will dominate in more countries of the region, pushing already stretched health systems further to the brink."

Worried nations have 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.

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.

India has, so far, reported 358 cases of the Omicron variant, of which 122 were reported in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra has the most cases (88), followed by Delhi (67), Telangana (38), Tamil Nadu (34), Karnataka (31) and Gujarat (30).

With input from Reuters