Vaccine Matters: Ahead of target, Centre claims 1 dose as effective as 2

As the clamour for a third dose grows, the head of the World Health Organization is calling on rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines to refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year, expanding a call that has largely fallen on deaf ears. Tedros had previously called for a “moratorium” on booster shots through the end of September, but the United States and other countries have begun or are considering plans to offer them to their vulnerable people.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday claimed that first dose of Covid-19 vaccines used in India offer nearly the same protective effect against death as the second dose, contradicting existing research findings that show double doses (and a likely third) offer greater protection. The claim is based on Indian Council of Medical Research’s new vaccine tracker that has been created by integrating three data sets – Co-WIN, ICMR’s national Covid testing database and a Covid-19 database of the Union Health Ministry that has never been made public.

The claim of high protection from a single dose of the Covid-19 jab comes three months before the Centre’s target of inoculating 94.47 crore adults with two doses of vaccines by December 31. While the entire target population is likely to be covered with a single dose by the year-end, two doses for everybody is out of the question as only 17 crore have received both the shots till now.

The Union government has placed a purchase order with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 66 crore doses of Covishield to be supplied by December.

With Kerala's Covid-19 situation slightly more under control compared to the previous weeks, India's daily infections have fallen below the 40,000-mark. However, with Ganesh Chaturthi on Friday and more festivals upcoming - the on-ground situation might be hard to gauge until a few weeks. The best defence so far against the disease remains vaccination.

It’s natural to wonder if highly effective Covid-19 vaccines are leading to the emergence of variants that evade the vaccine. But with just under 40 per cent of people in the world having received a dose of a vaccine – only 2 per cent in low-income countries – and nearly a million new infections occurring globally every day, the emergence of new, more contagious variants, like Delta, is being driven by uncontrolled transmission, not vaccines.

Experts have called on the Karnataka government to take measures to prevent reinfections of coronavirus and even sought a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine during the year-end months to effectively protect people. Those who were infected during the second wave of Covid-19 in summer this year may be vulnerable to reinfections as the antibodies could wane after six months.

In a slightly worrying development, many among the 83,431 who have received the Sputnik V vaccine in Karnataka have not returned to get their second jab, which they should have received 21 days after the first dose. The vaccine has been available only in nine hospitals in three districts. In Bengaluru, only six hospitals offer the vaccine, including Manipal, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Kauvery, NU and United. Elsewhere, Tenet Medcorp and Yenepoya hospital, Mangaluru; and BLDE University and Shri Ganpatlal Agarwal Memorial Ayush Hospital, both in Vijayapura district, offer the vaccine.

To make verifying an individual's vaccination status easier, Co-WIN has developed a new API called 'Know Your Customer's/Client's Vaccination Status', or KYC-VS. This will enable a verifying entity to know whether a person has been vaccinated against coronavirus or not, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. This may be utilised by any service provider, private or public, for whom verifying an individual's vaccination status is critical for facilitating a service requested.

The launch of the Covovax Covid-19 vaccine in India may take longer than expected since the shot has not yet received approval in the US and the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has sought immunogenicity data from the Serum Institute of India.

On the international front, Israel -- a focal point of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccines -- has reported significant outbreaks despite inoculating nearly half its population with the first dose by February. With over 10,000 confirmed new cases being recorded each day in early September. A main part of the problem has been vaccine coverage. After its fast start, Israel’s rollout slowed. What may have caused this? - Supply disruptions, hesitancy? And more importantly, will this happen to other countries? -- It's still difficult to determine.

The White House on Thursday ramped up Covid-19 vaccine and testing mandates in a campaign due to be outlined by President Joe Biden that will affect some 100 million people, including employees at many private companies, federal workers and healthcare staff. While the US government has yet to consider the kinds of national mandates seen in some other countries, Biden's new "six-pronged" plan amounts to his most aggressive steps so far against the surging Delta variant.

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