The government says there is no need to panic as Covid cases are increasing.
New Delhi:
The Center’s leading medical research body says the preventive doses of Covid-19 vaccines are mainly to reduce the severity of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The government also indicates that post-vaccination immunity against the virus lasts up to nine months. It added that there is no need to panic as the number of Covid cases is increasing as we are preparing for a spike.
“All Covid vaccines, whether coming from India, Israel, the US, Europe, the UK or China, are primarily disease-modifying. They don’t prevent infection. The preventive dose is mainly to reduce the disease. minimize the severity of infections, hospitalizations and deaths,” said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
About 90% of the adult population in India has been vaccinated against Covid with the first dose, the Union Health Ministry told reporters, adding that many people have been exposed repeatedly to the SARS-CoV2 antigen because of some Vaccinated people have had a previous symptomatic infection while some others have had an undetected asymptomatic infection.
The government is taking various steps to ensure wider vaccination coverage, including sending SMS messages to eligible elderly people to remind them to take their dose of the Covid vaccine, starting on January 10, the ministry said.
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