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* Two cases detected in Karnataka showing mild symptoms
* Officials say priority is to fully vaccinate adults first
(Adds details on vaccines)
BENGALURU, Dec 2 (Reuters) - India reported its first two
cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Thursday but the
government said it had no immediate plan to authorise booster
vaccine shots despite demands from lawmakers in parliament.
The health ministry said two male patients with the new
COVID-19 variant, aged 66 and 46 years, were showing mild
symptoms but declined to provide their vaccine or travel
history, citing their privacy.
"All primary contacts and secondary contacts of both the
cases have been traced and are being tested," health official
Lav Agarwal told a news briefing, adding the men were in the
southern state of Karnataka.
Local media reported that five contacts of one of the men
had also tested positive for the variant.
India, which suffered a record surge in infections and
deaths in April and May due to the Delta variant, has fully
vaccinated about 49% of its 944 million adults despite having
ample supplies of domestically made shots.
About 84% have received at least one dose, while those under
18 have yet to be inoculated.
Several lawmakers urged the government on Thursday to
consider boosters for healthcare workers and the elderly given
that states had a stockpile of nearly 230 million vaccine doses.
But health officials reiterated the priority was to fully
inoculate all adults first, and urged those overdue for their
shots to get vaccinated.
"We must not deviate from our goal of administering two
doses in each eligible individual," said senior health official
Vinod Kumar Paul, adding there was no plan to shorten the
duration between two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
India mandates an unusually long gap of 12-16 weeks between
the first two vaccine doses, which accounts for nearly 90% of
the 1.25 billion total doses given in the country.
There were 9,765 new cases on Thursday, taking India's total
to 34.61 million. Deaths rose by 477 to 469,724.
(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru and Krishna N.
Das in New Delhi; Editing by Nick Macfie and Bernadette Baum)
