* Two cases detected in Karnataka showing mild symptoms
* Officials say priority is to fully vaccinate adults first
(Adds details of the patients in paragraphs 3-6)
By Anuron Kumar Mitra and Chandini Monnappa
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.
The federal health ministry said two male patients with the
new strain, aged 66 and 46 years, had shown mild symptoms.
The health minister of the southern state of Karnataka,
where the cases were detected, said the first person, a South
African national, spent a week in India and left last Saturday
after testing negative. More than 250 of his contacts have
tested negative.
The second one, an Indian physician, had no recent travel
history, minister Sudhakar K. told reporters. Both are fully
vaccinated.
Five more contacts of the doctor, who isolated himself on
Nov. 23 after feeling unwell, have also tested positive and
their samples were being investigated to determine the variant.
India, which suffered a record surge in infections and
deaths in April and May due to the Delta variant, has fully
vaccinated just 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 vulnerable,
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.
"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.
There were 9,765 new cases in India on Thursday, taking the
total to 34.61 million. Deaths rose by 477 to 469,724.
(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra, Krishna N. Das and Chandini
Monappa; Editing by Nick Macfie, Bernadette Baum and Mark
Heinrich)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
