Covid rising: Only a quarter of Indians have had precautionary dose; gaps in second dose as well

India's precautionary dose coverage was low

The resurgence of Covid infection in India, which had 1,009 active cases as of May 26, has brought the focus back on vaccination, with country’s low count of “precautionary” or “booster” doses.

A Moneycontrol analysis shows that India could vaccinate only a quarter of its 1.4 billion people with a precautionary dose until 2024, leaving most of the citizens exposed to future threats.

An analysis health and family welfare ministry data shows that there were gaps even in administering the second dose of vaccine.

While the first dose has been given to over a billion people until 2024, only 93 percent had received a second dose. The ratio of people administered with precautionary dose was even lower at 220 million.

The precautionary dose was available only for those above the age of 18 and healthcare and frontline workers.

At risk?

Second dose administration was higher among adults than children. Data shows that while 94 percent of the adult population (18+) had been administered a second dose, only 86.6 percent of those aged 15-18 had received second dose of vaccine and just 78.8 percent of those aged between 12-14 had received the second dose.

If the booster or precautionary dose helps avert severe infection from new variants, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Punjab and Haryana seem to be at a higher risk.

According to government data, Meghalaya had 6.8 percent of population vaccinated with a precautionary dose, while Nagaland and Punjab had covered 8.5 percent of the adult population. Haryana and Jharkhand’s ratio was a tad higher but still below 10 percent, at 9.2 and 9.6 percent, respectively.

Punjab recorded its first case on May 26. Kerala, which has 11.4 percent coverage of precautionary dose, had 430 active cases.

Maharashtra, which had a similar precautionary dose coverage as Kerala, accounted for 20 percent of country’s total active cases.

Delhi had a coverage of 20.4 percent, lower than the national average of 24.8 percent. Among the larger states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had 46 percent coverage, followed by Odisha (42.2 percent), Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

The country has reported seven deaths since May 19, with 1,009 active infections leading to a death rate of 0.7 percent. India's overall death rate during the previous waves was 1.1 percent.

The recent uptick in Covid cases is largely being driven by JN.1, a variant of the coronavirus and Omicron lineage’s BA.2.86 subvariant. The World Health Organization has categorised it as a “variant of interest” but not a “concern”.

During the nation-wide vaccination drive, which was launched in January 2021, majority of the population was given the Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Later Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Sputnik V, manufactured under licence by Dr Reddy’s lab, were also made available along with some other jabs.