January 22, 2025

Preventing A Fresh Covid Outbreak: Intranasal Vaccine And Other Measures

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-12-24 07:09:01

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With scary reports about a tsunami of Covid infections coming out of China and fresh outbreak in a number of other countries, the government of India has done well to take immediate steps to prevent such an outbreak in the country. Although India is reporting less than 200 cases daily (just 163 fresh cases were reported on December 23, 2022 and active cases dipped to just 3380) as of now, the danger of large scale infections is always there even if one case of a new variant is not detected and the person roams about infecting others. Hence, the moves to randomly screen international passengers and send all Covid cases for genome sequencing are welcome. So is the move to grant emergency use approval to India's first intranasal vaccine, produced by Bharat Biotech, as a heterologous booster. Studies have suggested that intranasal Covid vaccines are more efficient than intramuscular ones.

It has already been established that natural infection combined with vaccination creates hybrid immunity and is the best first shield against the virus. Experts have pointed out that India is secure in this respect as there is abundant hybrid immunity. But although 95% of eligible Indians have taken two doses of the Covid vaccine, more than 75% have missed the booster dose. This is worrisome. After the initial success, the vaccination programme has become slack. The government must now revive it and start giving booster doses to those who have not taken it. There are 6 crore adults who have taken only one dose. They must be given the second dose. Then there are 7 crore senior citizens who have not taken the booster dose. As they are the most vulnerable section of the population (due to age and possible co-morbidities) they must be encouraged to take the booster dose. The same goes for frontline workers who have missed the booster dose. Further, there are a huge number of 12-17-year-olds who remain unvaccinated. They should be covered fast.The intranasal vaccine could be a game-changer (and Bharat Biotech should be asked to ramp up production) to pierce through vaccine hesitancy as it does not involve intramuscular injection. 

Since more than 6 to 9 months have passed since people took the booster dose, it is not clear whether hybrid immunity would hold good for a large percentage of the population. Expert advice must be sought that in the given situation, is it advisable to start giving the fourth dose to frontline workers and senior citizens, to start with.  The government must reinvigorate the vaccination setup, encourage private hospitals to resume it in real earnest and start the vaccination drive again. That, along with strict enforcement of Covid protocols like masking up in public, disallowing crowded events and provision of hand sanitizer in public spaces will keep Indians safe. Genome sequencing of all positive Covid samples will ensure that new variants will be discovered fast and appropriate steps will be taken to prevent an outbreak.

Picture courtesy: Bharat Biotech