oppn parties Preventing A Fresh Covid Outbreak: Intranasal Vaccine And Other Measures

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Preventing A Fresh Covid Outbreak: Intranasal Vaccine And Other Measures

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

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

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

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