India should aim for 90% vax coverage with both doses for all adults

Around 11,900 new COVID-19 cases were added in the last 24 hours as of 8 am Wednesday, with active cases falling by 2,500. The number of recoveries has risen by 14,100, while 3,011 deaths have been reported, which is lower compared to the previous day’s number.

India’s seven-day vaccination average was declining towards the 50 lakh mark. Close to 55 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine whereas 25 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a review meeting with the magistrates of over 40 districts with low COVID-19 vaccination coverage. These districts have a first dose coverage of below 50 percent. Modi urged officials to get cracking and also told them to take the vaccination drive to the doorstep of citizens.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) will today conduct a final risk assessment benefit for the emergency use listing of Bharat Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine Covaxin. The WHO’s technical advisory group had sought additional data on risk-benefit assessment on October 26 and the matter is scheduled to be taken up today.

Over one crore doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine manufactured by Hyderabad-based BiologicalE have been cleared by the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) and once the reports are cleared by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the vaccine doses will be ready to be exported. However, these will not be used for domestic purposes because India has not yet arrived at an understanding as far as the indemnity clause is concerned.

To discuss the developments on the vaccination front and India’s COVID-19 trajectory, CNBC-TV18 caught up with Dr. Gagandeep Kang, professor, and virologist, CMC, Vellore.

Dr Kang hailed the government’s decision to embark on a door to door vaccination campaign and ensure last-mile delivery so that people in remote areas do not miss out on vaccinations. She hopes it will strengthen coverage for both first and second doses in the country.

The immunisation programme has done a fantastic job so far by being able to deliver over a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses, she said. She, however, said it is increasingly important at the stage to get to remote populations and to people who cannot get to vaccination centres.

When asked about the delay in second dose coverage, she said one reason could be that the disease has disappeared, so the urgency is gone. “This is the first adult immunisation programme, usually, when we have adult immunisation, it is for pregnant women, and that is two doses or one dose in subsequent pregnancies,” she said.

“I think the fact is that this is in a completely new population that is unused to coming back for a second dose, as well as the fact that we have lost the urgency because people are not seeing so many cases anymore,” she said explaining the reason for the delay in second dose coverage.

When asked where things currently stood in terms of COVID in India, Dr Kang said it is very typical that despite the fact that a lot of people in the country have been infected naturally by SARS-CoV-2, there is a need for both the first dose and the second dose of vaccine to reach as much of the population as possible.

There is a decrease in transmission now and that decrease in the transmission is because some people have been infected previously, she said. Dr Kang, however, added that people can’t rest easy because there are still pockets of the population where first those coverage is less than 50 percent. Those are areas where there is a need to push vaccination. “Across the country, what we should be aiming for is 90 percent coverage with both doses among all adults,” she added.

Commenting on the need for a booster dose, the expert said, “We must go back to the first principles of why we vaccinate and that is to prevent severe diseases and death in the most vulnerable populations. Those are the elderly and people with comorbidities, I have no problem with rich countries giving boosters to their elderly and people who are considered vulnerable. But, to give boosters to the general population, I do not think is justified, particularly when there is so much of the world that has not really received vaccines.’’

According to her, it is important to understand that the different vaccine platforms, the vaccination intervals, and the infection experience of different populations make it imperative that there’s no one size fits all approach to vaccination. “We need to be able to understand the data and then decide at what stage and with which vaccine we want to give boosters,” she said.
Talking about vaccination in India, she said there are clearly groups that need a third dose now – those groups are people who have had transplants, people who are particularly old, who have comorbidities that might have resulted in them having a lower response to the vaccine. CNBCTV18