The government’s advisory bodies are considering a booster vaccine dose for immunocompromised individuals or those who are at high risk, including the elderly, and the Omicron variant is not being seen as a reason to rush to a decision on the third dose yet.

Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said that the global data suggest that Omicron is causing only mild disease. Even a third dose will not be able to prevent infection with the new variant. He added that these vaccines do not prevent infections but reduce disease severity. Meanwhile, Anurag Agarwal, director, CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, said that boosters may help, and high-risk individuals receiving inactivated vaccines may be given priority, followed by other high-risk and high-exposure healthcare workers. Agarwal added that it must be ensured that the number of fully vaccinated individuals increases... (ET Healthworld – TNN, December 14, 2021)