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Priority on two doses for entire population in India, says Kerala doc amid calls for boosters
Dr Rajeev Jayadevan from IMA Kerala said both Covishield and Covaxin are providing equal protection from death and a two-dose or three-dose group would not make any difference in fatality rates.
Covishield and Covaxin – the two vaccines that are being administered against coronavirus in India – are providing equal protection from death and a two-dose or three-dose group would not make any difference in fatality rates.
The statement was made by a senior doctor from Kerala amid growing calls for booster doses in the wake of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 spreading its tentacles in the country and elsewhere.
Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, vice chairman of the research cell of Kerala’s unit of Indian Medical Association, further said that the priority in India is to get two doses administered to the entire population.
“What we want as a country is to minimize the number of deaths. Two-dose and three-dose groups have absolutely no difference in the death rates. Both are offering equal protection against death. In India, our priority is to get two shots to the entire population,” Dr Jayadevan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
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He further said that so far, there has been no signal from anywhere in the country that people are falling sick after taking either of the vaccines. “Until today, there has been no decline in the protection offered by both vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin. No signal has come from anywhere in India that people are suddenly falling sick after taking these vaccines,” he added.
The senior doctor’s statement came on a day AstraZeneca said its Covid-19 vaccine that is being being manufactured and marketed here by the Serum Institute of India as Covishield, is effective against the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant, citing data from an Oxford University lab study.
Meanwhile, India reported a significant rise in Covid-19 cases with 7,495 new infections being registered in the last 24 hours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to chair a review meeting later in the evening.
