Covid vaccines are disease-modifying, don't prevent infection: ICMR

The precautionary dose is primarily to mitigate the severity of infection, hospitalisation and death, says Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR

All COVID vaccines do not prevent infection and are primarily disease-modifying, said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday. Briefing media persons, DG, ICMR said, "All COVID vaccines, whether they are from India, Israel, US, Europe, UK or China, are primarily disease-modifying. They do not prevent infection. The precautionary dose is primarily to mitigate the severity of infection, hospitalisation and death."

"Use of masks before and after vaccination is a must and mass gatherings should be avoided... The treatment guidelines for the earlier and the currently circulating strains of coronavirus remain the same. Home isolation remains an important pillar," added Dr Bhargava. With the administration of 63,91,282 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 143.83 crore (1,43,83,22,742) as per provisional reports till 7 am today, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

As per the ministry, this has been achieved through 1,53,47,226 sessions. Within the age group of 18 to 44 years, 49,76,01,405 1st doses have been administered along with the administration of 32,67,56,163 2nd doses to the people in the category.

Within the age group of 45 to 59 years, as many as 19,40,91,039 people have been vaccinated with the 1st dose while 14,90,18,597 people have been administered with the 2nd dose. As many as 12,11,54,096 elderly people, (above the age of 60 years) have been administered with the 1st dose of the vaccine while 9,43,50,863 doses of the 2nd dose have been administered.

Meanwhile, India reported 13,154 new COVID-19 cases and 268 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. The tally of Omicron COVID-19 variant cases in the country has gone up to 961 with maximum cases reported from Delhi (263) and Maharashtra (252).

With this, the country's COVID-19 tally has risen to 34,822,040 while the death toll has mounted to 4,80,860. The ministry informed that the active caseload in the country stands at 82,402 constituting 0.24 per cent of the total cases.

As many as 7,486 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 3,42,58,778.