The Precaution Dose against Covid-19 will be the same vaccine as the first and second dose, Dr VK Paul, member of the NITI Aayog said on Wednesday. The precaution dose is set to begin for healthcare workers and those above 60 with co-morbidities from January 10.
“Precautionary Covid-19 vaccine dose will be the same vaccine as has been given previously. Those who’ve received Covaxin will receive Covaxin, those who’ve received primary two doses of Covishield will receive Covishield,” Dr Paul said during a press briefing of the Union Health Ministry.
Dr Paul added that the national positivity rate which was 1.1 percent on December 30, currently stands at 5 percent, while the R-value stands at 2.69.
Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, during the briefing, said that the country recorded more than 6.3 times increase in Covid cases in the last 8 days, while many states including Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal have been identified as ‘emerging states of concern’.
“The States of concern are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat where there has been a rise in cases. 28 districts in the country are reporting more than 10% weekly positivity.” He added that the weekly positivity rate is highest in West Bengal,” the Joint Secretary said.
Lav Agrawal said that there have been 108 deaths globally related to the new variant. He said that there has been a surge of cases globally due to Omicron.
He said six states have reported more than 10,000 active cases while two states have an active caseload of between 5,000 to 10,000.
Meanwhile, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG-ICMR said that Omicron is the predominant circulating strain in the cities in the country. He also said that mass gatherings should be avoided to lower the speed of this spread.
The ICMR DG also said Molnupiravir will not be included in national treatment protocol due to its safety concerns.
“Molnupiravir has major safety concerns including mutagenicity, muscle and bone damage. If this drug is given contraception has to be done for three months as child may have problems. So it is not included in national task got treatments,” Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR said.
The briefing comes as India saw a single-day rise of 58,097 new coronavirus infections, the highest in around 199 days. The active cases were recorded above 2 lakh after around 81 days, according to the data updated at 8 am. The country’s Covid death toll has climbed to 4,82,551 with 534 daily fatalities, the data stated.
A total of 2,135 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected across 24 states and UTs, out of which, 828 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Wednesday.
Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 653 cases followed by Delhi at 464, Kerala 185, Rajasthan 174, Gujarat 154 and Tamil Nadu 121 cases.
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