Booster dose possible for serious patients: National Advisory Group will prepare policy in 2 weeks, may also decide on vaccination of 44 crore children

It is also feared that the Omicron variant of Corona will reach India. Meanwhile, Dr. NK Arora, chairman of the country's Covid Task Force, has said that the government is going to bring a new policy on additional doses of vaccine for critical patients and people with weak immunity. This policy will be prepared by the National Technical Advisory Group (NTAG) in 2 weeks. NTAG is also going to bring a new policy for the vaccination of 44 crore children of the country.

Arora said- Many labs of the country are currently investigating the efficacy of new variants of the vaccine present in India. It may take 2 weeks. Only then will we know to what extent Covaxin, Covishield, and other vaccines are capable of fighting the virus.

Booster dose to the elderly in many countries

According to NDTV, when asked about the booster dose for the elderly, Dr. Arora said – After the new variant of Corona came to the fore, booster doses are being given to the elderly in many countries. These include America, Britain, and Israel. Booster means that we will need 94 crores more doses. These cannot be prepared in one night. However, there is no shortage of vaccines in the country.

Arora said – 12 to 15 crore people in the country have not received a single dose of the vaccine. 30 crore people did not get the second dose. We have to speed up the vaccination. This should be done on a priority basis.

There is no Omicron case in the country

So far, not a single case of Omicron has been reported in India. Earlier this month, 2 South African nationals who arrived in Bengaluru were found to be Corona positive. One of them has been found infected with the Delta strain. Karnataka Health Minister Dr. K Sudhakar said- Test samples have been sent to the labs for genome sequencing. We are very cautious about the Omicron strain.

Dr. Samiran Panda, Chief of Epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has expressed the possibility of Omicron already being present in India. Panda had said that the information about this variant will be revealed only through the test.