Ramp up of precaution doses and child vaccination is the need of the hour

With the lens now on the XE mutation of the Omicron variant, India’s precaution dose and child vaccination programmes needs to be expedited. Since Sunday when it was opened to all adults, less than 50,000 precaution doses have been administered to those between 18 and 60. A number of states are witnessing slight uptick in cases. This could be a sign that immunity levels are going down and have to be boosted.

SII chief Adar Poonawalla has asked GoI to reduce the gap between booster doses from nine to six months. This would immediately help cover a large proportion of the active workforce with boosters. GoI must scale up testing and genome sequencing alongside commissioning another national serosurvey to gain a better understanding of the current situation.

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The detection of Covid infections in three schools in Delhi NCR has prompted them to suspend classes. This is unfortunate but clusters forming in schools tend to induce panic among parents. Children have already lost over two years of learning to Covid. This calls for scaling up the child vaccination programme to all school going children. This will allow schools to function without uncertainty and avert more setbacks.

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