Free third Covid vaccine window nears end, many yet to get booster
As of Sunday night, there has so far been no announcement regarding a possible extension of the 75-day window to administer precaution doses free of cost to all aged 18 and above.
While the nationwide 75-day window for free Covid-19 booster doses, which is scheduled to end in a little over a week, has significantly increased the demand for the third shot of the vaccine, it is still likely to leave behind a considerable challenge for the government with nearly three-fourths of all eligible adults set to still remain without a precaution dose, data analysed by HT shows.
Experts said that complacency regarding Covid-19 appears to be the reason why people have stayed away from vaccination centres, particularly because recent waves of the virus (fueled by the Omicron variant) were not as lethal as previous waves such as Delta, which caused a massive jump in deaths in early 2021.
As of Sunday night, there has so far been no announcement regarding a possible extension of the 75-day window to administer precaution doses free of cost to all aged 18 and above under the government’s Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence. The drive, which started on July 15, is scheduled to end on September 27.
As part of the drive, officials across the country are holding special camps for booster shots at railway stations, bus stations, airports, schools and colleges, and in camps during religious yatras, and also in border areas.
The good news is that this free window has been successful in giving a considerable bump to the pace of booster administration. The seven-day average of daily booster administration increased from 0.14 million in the week ending April 17 (when all adults became eligible) to 2.03 million doses in the week ending September 17, according to data furnished by the Union health ministry.
However, despite this increase in pace, it still leaves a lot to be done in terms of attaining good coverage among the country’s population.
As things stand on September 17, three out of four (75.2%) people eligible for a booster shot had not yet taken their third jab, according to government data. Even at the highest pace of booster administration (when 2.65 million average shots were administered every day for the week ended August 8) seen in the country till date, around 72% of eligible adults will still likely remain without their precaution doses by September 27, the data shows.
Experts said that these numbers reflect a sense of complacency among the people.
“Many of my patients ask me if they should take the booster dose; the fact that they are asking speaks a lot about how complacent they are. There is no concern any more as hospitalisations and deaths have been fewer of late. In their heads, the pandemic is over, which is why you find people not wearing mask, travelling for leisure etc.,” said Dr Rommel Tickoo, director, internal medicine department, Max Healthcare.
Experts also point out that just giving away free shots is unlikely to be a silver bullet that fixes lagging booster uptake.
HT’s analysis also shows that as on September 17, around 30.6% of the health care workers, who were among the first population group allowed to take the third dose on January 10, are still late for their booster shot – highlighting that even those who are most likely to be informed about and have access to vaccines are being complacent.
“This is an issue, for sure, as the uptake is still on the lower side. We are brainstorming on what other measures can be taken to ensure people come forward to take the shot. Need to look at more effective ways of reaching out to the target population,” said a senior government official aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.
An editorial from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientists published last month also emphasises the need for the third dose to mount a better immune response.
“Even with complete doses of vaccination followed by breakthrough infection, reduced immune responses were observed at pre-reinfection. This emphasises the need for the booster vaccination dose,” said the researchers in an editorial in the medical journal Infectious Diseases.
Even though the severity is less and there is known immune escape of Omicron and its sub-lineage, experts the world over have consistently warned against dropping the guard just yet, and urge people to take the booster dose for better protection.
“After Omicron, the protection against infection and transmission by vaccines have fallen quite a bit. However, some of the protection is recovered by boosting. Taking the booster shot is especially important for elderly and high-risk comorbid people. For others there is no clear data as of now,” said Dr Anurag Agrawal, former director, CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
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