Amid concerns over emergence of cases of the new coronavirus variant 'Omicron' in India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that we might need to vaccinate everybody again with a booster dose. The Wayanad MP also said the Centre needs to "think clearly" about the vaccine strategy.
"Imp that we think clearly about vaccine strategy, what I'm hearing is current vaccines aren't necessarily working with this variant. We've to be careful on how we're vaccinating & get ready to accept that we might've to vaccinate everybody again with new booster," news agency ANI quoted Gandhi as saying.
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On Thursday, NITI Aayog's Dr VK Paul said the Centre's first priority is to complete the task of vaccinating all adults with both doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Regarding providing a booster dose to fully vaccinated individuals, he said it is under consideration.
"Scientific reasoning for providing boosters at what timing, for which vaccine, all that is under examination. Currently, let's be very clear, our priority is very clear - complete the task of vaccinating all adults with both doses," news agency ANI quoted Dr VK Paul as saying.
Meanwhile, Serum Institute of India (SII) has sought from India's drug regulator's approval for Covishield as a booster dose citing adequate stock of the vaccine in the country and a demand for a booster shot due to the emergence of new coronavirus variants, news agency PTI quoted official sources as saying.
In an application to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Prakash Kumar Singh, the Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII) cited that the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has already approved the booster dose of AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, they said.
Singh is learnt to have said in the application that as the world continues to face the pandemic situation, many countries have started administering booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
"People of our country as well as citizens of other countries who have already been fully vaccinated with two doses of Covishield are also continuously requesting our firm for booster dose," an official source quoted Singh as having said in the application on Tuesday.
(With PTI inputs)