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NEW DELHI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - India began administering
booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine to frontline workers and
vulnerable elderly people on Monday, with the fast-spreading
Omicron variant fuelling an almost eight-fold rise in daily
infections since the start of the year.
India reported 179,723 new cases on Monday, most of them in
the country's biggest cities - Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - where
Omicron has overtaken Delta as the most prevalent strain of the
virus.
There were 146 deaths reported on Monday, bringing the toll
to 483,936 since the pandemic first struck India in early 2020.
Only the United States and Brazil have recorded more deaths.
In recent days, hundreds of healthcare and frontline
workers, including police, have contracted the virus, and there
were media reports that hundreds of parliamentary staff have
also tested positive ahead of a budget session on Feb. 1.
Facing this rising third wave of infections, the government
sent booster reminders to more than 10 million people who took
their second dose of the Covaxin or Covishield shot nine months
ago.
Unlike many countries, India is not mixing and matching
vaccines.
Only healthcare personnel, frontline workers and people
above 60 years suffering from other health conditions are
eligible for what the government calls a "precaution dose".
"The government is committed to provide additional security
cover to healthcare and frontline workers on priority," Health
Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote on Twitter.
Despite the rise in infections, five states including the
most populous Uttar Pradesh will hold elections starting Feb.
10, though authorities have barred political party rallies until
at least the middle of this month.
Tasked with protecting India's near 1.4 billion people from
the virus, the government has administered 1.5 billion vaccine
doses in total. About 67% of the country's 939 million adults
have been double vaccinated.
India's overall COVID-19 testing has remained around 1.5
million a day, well below the capacity of more than 2 million.
Since the pandemic began, India has recorded 35.7 million
cases of COVID-19, the highest in the world after the United
States.
Government officials have privately said they are working
under the assumption that daily infections will surpass the
record of more than 414,000 set in May, based on what has
happened in countries like the United States, where daily cases
have risen past 1 million.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi, Chandini Monnappa in
Bengaluru and Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
