Govt examining booster dose requirement as 'R' number spikes in 4 states

R number shows how many people an infected person infects, or how efficiently a virus is spreading. In some states this number is more than one, which means transmission can increase rapidly

Amid concerns over rising reproduction or the R number in four states including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, the government is examining the possibility of a booster dose of Covid vaccine.

The national expert group on vaccination administration for Covid (NEGVAC) is discussing the possibility of giving a booster dose, V K Paul, member-health Niti Aayog and chairman of the national covid task force said. “We are closely watching the need for such imperatives. Science on this matter is still emerging, although the WHO has called for a moratorium on booster doses,” Paul said.

Amid the widening gap between the vaccination coverage in wealthy and poorer countries, the World Health Organisation had said vaccine boosters were needed until the end of September to ensure at least 10 per cent of the population of every country is vaccinated.

Paul also said that the increasing trend of R number is a significant reason to be concerned and vigilant. Reproduction number refers to how many people an infected person infects, on average. In other words, it can tell you how efficiently a virus is spreading. In some states this number is more than one, which means the transmission can increase rapidly.

“We have to talk of containing the pandemic and not mitigating it. We have to ensure vaccine induced herd immunity instead of infection induced,” Paul said.

Health ministry has sought more details on breakthrough infections after two doses reported in Kerala from the state government there to find out the severity of such infections and their timing.

According to a report by the central team that visited Kerala, one of the districts of Patnamthitta  showed 14,974 were infected after their first dose and 5,042 even with two doses of vaccination. It was also found that 88-90 per cent of cases in the state were due to the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“The delta variant is ruling India and the world. It reduces the gap between exposure and infection and shows higher viral load. But vaccines work in reducing severe disease and hospitalisation,” Paul said.

Government has also said that it would welcome the contributions through corporate social responsibility funds and NGOs to help augment and expand the coverage of vaccination in the country, especially to include groups such as teachers or industrial workforce. “All efforts have to be made to vaccinate teachers and other such groups. This has come up in our discussions,” Paul said.  

The genome sequencing conducted on 58,240 samples so far has detected  28,932 variants of concern. While Delta is currently dominating, only 86 cases of the Delta plus variant have been detected so far. The highest number of Delta plus cases were in Maharashtra (34) followed by Tamil Nadu (10).

“In four months since March, We have had 86 such cases coming from different states, with no surge in any particular district and the variant has not been limited to one state. We have not found any evidence that Delta plus has the ability to cause any exponential surge,” said Sujeet Kumar Singh, director, national centre for disease control.