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'Precaution dose necessary': Top Covid expert amid concern over spike
India Covid cases: Amid Independence Day celebrations, top leaders of the county had applauded India's response to the pandemic.
Booster dose is necessary to take, Dr VK Paul, who is one of the top Covid experts in the country, has said. “Covid is still there. The number of cases have increased in recent days,” said Dr Paul. His remarks come amid concern over laxity among people about taking the third shot of the vaccine. As the government tries to expand vaccine coverage, special focus is being given on the booster doses.
“Precaution doses are necessary. All precautions are also necessary… while masks and social distancing are crucial. Corbevax vaccine has been approved for precaution dose for heterologous or mix-match option,” the NITI Aayog member was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Across the world, a surge in Covid cases is being reported, and a rise in deaths has sparked worry again. An overall increase of 35 per cent in deaths was recorded in the last four weeks, the WHO has said in its latest updates, as Omicron remains the dominant variant globally.
In India, Delhi is among the parts, which have seen an uptick in hospitalisations recently.
While 93,86,47,700 people in the country have got the 2nd dose, about 1,29,053,987 have taken the booster doses, which is about 13 per cent of the overall figure.
India began the world's largest vaccination drive against coronavirus last year. In the daily bulletin on Wednesday evening, the health ministry said: "India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 208.93 Crore (2,08,93,68,966) today."
The country registered 12,608 new cases, and 72 deaths, the government data said in its latest bulletin, with death count revised from Punjab, Kerala and Goa. Thursday's figure was a surge as compared to cases logged on Wednesday and Tuesday when the tally was above the 10,000-mark.
(With inputs from ANI)
