(Adds details)
NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - India has detected 25 cases of
the emergent Omicron variant of the coronavirus and all have
shown mild symptoms, the health ministry said on Friday, adding
that there was no immediate plan to authorise vaccine boosters.
Vaccine supplies have surged in India in recent months
thanks to the Serum Institute of India (SII), which now plans to
halve the monthly output of its version of the AstraZeneca
vaccine as demand has crashed.
The SII and other Indian drugmakers such as Dr. Reddy's
Laboratories, which distributes Russia's Sputnik
vaccine, have lobbied the government https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-vaccine-makers-bank-boosters-demand-crashes-2021-12-08
to approve booster shots in a bid to lift sales.
Senior health official Vinod Kumar Paul told a news briefing
that government experts were studying data on boosters but "our
emphatic view...is to (first) cover every adult with (just) the
primary two doses."
The government has said this target can be achieved by
January.
India has not considered authorising booster doses yet as
many in the country have been naturally infected and the
government believes two vaccine doses offer sufficient
protection for now, three informed sources told Reuters late
last month.
Around 87% of India's adults, estimated at 939 million
people, have received at least one dose of a vaccine and 54% of
them have received the full two. Inoculations for those under
the age of 18 years have not started.
Paul spoke after the World Health Organization recommended
that people with compromised immunity or those who received an
inactivated vaccine should receive a booster.
Inactivated vaccines, which use killed or inactivated
coronavirus to induce immunity, is made by India's Bharat
Biotech and some Chinese companies.
At 144 million doses, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin accounts for
about 11% of the total vaccine doses administered in India. Many
Indian healthcare workers received Covaxin early this year and
some experts say they should soon be allowed to take a booster.
India's daily new COVID-19 cases have hovered around 10,000
for the past few weeks, taking the total to 34.67 million, more
than 474,000 of whom have died.
Most contracted the Delta variant, though Omicron has spread
to five states after India's first two cases were reported on
Dec. 2. "All detected cases have mild symptoms," a health
ministry statement said.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das, Rama Venkat and Sumit Khanna;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
