Covid Vaccine: Does India Need A Fourth Dose?

COVID-19 is not becoming just a bad memory yet, it seems. On January 10, India reported a fresh case of the XBB 1.5 sub-variant, nicknamed the Kraken variant, pushing India's total cases to eight.

- Sonali Acharjee

The strain combines mutations from two Omicron variants-BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75-and is also fuelling the latest surge in the US. Meanwhile, India has also recorded several cases of the BF.7 Omicron sub-variant, many found in the samples of Covid-positive international visitors, and fuelling the current wave in China. However, despite the entry of these two new sub-variants, which have caused both increased infection and death in other countries, India is currently in a comfortable position. On January 9, only one death and 121 new cases were reported on account of the virus. The case load on January 9 was a dip from the day before (January 8) when 170 new cases were reported. Countrywide, India has less than 2,500 active cases at present.

The low case load, of course, could be because people are not getting themselves tested, or having asymptomatic runs. The country's extensive vaccination programme, under which almost all of India's adult population has been immunised, is also why we are faring better than the rest of the world. "Vaccines are the key to our defence against Covid," says Dr N.K. Arora, head of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). "They give our immune systems the boost needed to prevent serious infection." A survey published in the January 2023 edition of the Nature Medicine journal found 98 per cent Indians accepting Covid vaccines, substantially higher than the global average of 79 per cent.