The turn taken by the pandemic over the past two weeks has made it imperative that the “precautionary” vaccination campaign for the elderly, healthcare professionals and frontline workers proceed smoothly, which began on Monday. While the virus appears to have taken a milder form during the current wave, some of the warnings issued by the WHO in late November after South African authorities alerted the world to the latest variant of the pathogen , Omicron, remain prominent. The World Health Agency had warned that Omicron’s high transmissibility could compensate for its less virulent nature and stressed the need to protect the elderly and the immunocompromised. Reports of large numbers of doctors in Delhi and Mumbai affected by Covid should also be of concern. Although these doctors do not suffer from a severe form of the disease and hospitalization rates have so far been low, the health sector can hardly afford the absence of large numbers of doctors, d nurses and paramedics. There are already reports that Delhi hospitals need to cut back on routine consultations and surgeries. This is why a section of experts believes that the country would have been better prepared to deal with the current epidemic if it had planned to conduct additional doses earlier.

Last week, the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group ended speculation about which vaccines to use for “precautionary” doses. Given the lack of consensus on a mixed vaccine approach, the expert body did the right thing by recommending that the precautionary dose be the same as the first two vaccines. In addition, evidence from the UK shows that the third dose of AstraZeneca vaccine – Covishield in India – reduces severe Covid and hospitalizations by 88%. Discussions on mixing vaccines, however, must continue. Unlike the United States and Europe, there have been very few studies in India on the effectiveness of vaccines and experts rightly believe that more data on the duration of immunity offered by the vaccines used in the country will help develop more powerful boosters. . The virus’s propensity to mutate into variants like Omicron which can undermine vaccine performance and cause breakthrough infections has added a new dimension to this discourse. Preliminary studies show that a broad booster approach can reduce the R-number – the number of people infected by a Covid-positive person – to less than 1 during the outbreak caused by Omicron. The government’s next task should therefore be to expand the coverage of additional doses. It should also start planning the extension of the vaccination campaign for children.

Omicron again stressed that the virus is a moving target. We are, however, much better prepared to face the newest avatar of contagion compared to the desperate days of Wave 2. In the weeks and months to come, the government and scientific bodies must work to strengthen the shield provided by vaccines.