The precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be the same as the first and second doses, the government said on Wednesday while ruling out vaccine mixing for the third dose. India will start giving the booster dose to frontline healthcare workers and those above 60 with co-morobidities from January 10.
“Those who've received Covaxin will receive Covaxin, those who have received primary two doses of Covishield will receive Covishield,” Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog said.
According to the health ministry, India reported over 6.3 times rise in Covid cases in the last eight days—a sharp rise in case positivity from 0.79 per cent on December 29 to 5.03 per cent on January 5.
Twenty-eight districts reported over 10 per cent weekly positivity rate while 43 districts reported a weekly positivity rate between 5-10 per cent. The government observed that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Gujarat were emerging states of concern due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
The health ministry, however, noted that a surge in COVID-19 cases is visible across the globe. Around 25.2 lakh cases were recorded globally on January 4, the highest ever since onset of pandemic.
Talking at the press meet, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research informed that an Omicron detecting RT-PCR kit has been developed in partnership between Tata MD and ICMR and it has been approved by Drugs Controller General of India. This kit will give test results in four hours, he said.
Dr Bhargava said the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, is the predominant circulating strain in India.
"Omicron is the predominant circulating strain in cities in the country. Mass gatherings should be avoided to lower the speed of this spread," he said.
As per the health ministry, 2,135 cases of Omicron have been reported in the country with Maharashtra registering the maximum cases followed by Delhi.
