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Top AIIMS doctor pushes for booster shots as experts scramble over new Covid-19 variant
Giving Israel as a case study, Dr Wig said studies have shown vaccine effectiveness after the booster dose increases significantly -- from 40 per cent to 93 per cent.
A senior doctor at the All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi, on Friday pushed for booster shots against the coronavirus disease amid renewed fears of a third wave of the pandemic.
Chairperson of the Covid-19 task force, AIIMS Delhi, Dr Naveet Wig, said booster shots will need to be administered in the coming days and immediate studies must be commenced to ascertain its effectiveness on various age groups.
Giving Israel as a case study, Dr Wig said studies have shown vaccine effectiveness after the booster dose increases significantly -- from 40 per cent to 93 per cent.
“Booster doses will be required and immediate studies are needed -- based on age groups and different patients. In Israel, vaccine effectiveness after the booster dose rose from 40% to 93%,” the senior doctor said.
His remarks came at a time health experts across the world are scrambling to study the new variant of Covid-19 that has been detected in South Africa.
“The new variant is supposed to be more effective and transmissible with less neutralisation with antibodies. So we have to understand that new variants will keep coming. Universal vaccination is the most important thing,” the doctor added.
On Tuesday, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said no booster dose for coronavirus infection is required in the country at present as he hailed the ongoing nationwide vaccination drive in the country.
Also read | Coronavirus: Will booster shots be the new normal?
Earlier, other experts have also maintained that India cannot afford to administer booster shots yet as only about 35 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated against the Covid-19 disease.
Many countries across the world are administering booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine, including the US, Germany, Austria, Canada and France among others. A booster dose is administered to a vaccinated person when the rate of immunity in them has dropped below the required levels over a period of time.
India reported 10,549 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the caseload to 3,45,55,431, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare. As many as 488 patients died and 9,868 recovered from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll and total recoveries to 4,67,468 and 3,39,77,830
