New Delhi : India reported 6,990 new coronavirus cases and 190 related fatalities on Monday, pushing the overall case tally to 3,45,87,822 and the death count to 4,68,980, according to the Health Ministry bulletin.
During the same period, 10,116 recoveries were reported throughout the country. With this, the national recovery rate currently stands at 98.35 per cent, which is the highest since March 2020. The active cases in the country stood at 1,00,543 on Monday, the bulletin further showed.
New Covid variant, ‘Omicron’ which has been declared as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has triggered global worry. The variant was first detected in South Africa earlier this month. Since then, the new strain has already been detected in several European countries . ‘Omicron’ is said to be much more infectious than the Delta variant.
Booster Dose Policy For Special Cases Soon: Covid Panel Chief
A comprehensive policy on additional Covid vaccine doses for immunocompromised people will be drawn up over the next two weeks, Dr NK Arora, chairman of the country’s Covid Task Force, has told NDTV. The policy will be formulated by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation — along with another one on vaccinating the country’s 44 crore children. The prioritisation process is in progress, so children with comorbidities are given the vaccine first, he said.
Asked about a booster dose of the vaccine for the elderly — which is now being given in several nations — especially in view of the emergence of the new Covid variant Omicron, Mr Arora said a booster means 94 crore doses “which itself cannot be done overnight”.
He, however, asserted that there is no shortage of doses in the country.
Pointing out that even now, 12 to 15 crore Indians have not received a single dose of vaccine and 30 crore people have not received their second doses, he said the need of the hour is to push ahead with their vaccination which is the “most important and effected tool and completed on a priority basis”.
Also, in view of the new variant, it is essential to see how it fares against the existing vaccines, of which India has a large pool.
Also, one needs to take into account a country’s epidemiological condition, which is unique, he said.
“We are waiting for the next two weeks or so where labs across the country, some of which are our own labs are working on the effectiveness of the immune response elicited by our current vaccines, Covaxin, Covishield and other vaccines with the (new variant) of the virus and what extent of the virus neutralisation takes place,” he said.
India is yet to report any case of Omicron, which recently surfaced in South Africa. Suspected cases have been reported from a few other nations.
Two South African nationals who arrived in Bengaluru tested positive for Covid earlier this month. One of them has been found to be infected by the Delta strain.
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