COVID-19: Protect Vulnerable Groups!

Mon, 09 June 2025

08:31

Sanket Koul

Amid concerns over the rise in Covid cases in the past month, doctors and public health experts believe that India might benefit from a focused approach by protecting high-risk groups from infection instead of pushing for a mass booster dose coverage.

This comes even as India reported 6,133 active Covid cases as of June 8, a tally which stood at just 35 on April 28, according to data from the Covid dashboard of the ministry of health and family welfare.

Public health expert Dr K Srinath Reddy said the focus should be on protecting vulnerable population groups such as the elderly, those with comorbidities and immunocompromised, through Covid-appropriate behaviour like masking and avoiding crowds so that they do not get infected.

Sabine Kapasi, advisor, public health and healthcare services, and strategist with the United Nations COVID-19 task force, added prioritising booster shots for elderly and immunocompromised makes the most sense as it safeguards those at highest risk while making efficient use of our resources.

Taking a booster can be optional, Dr Reddy said, but it cannot be taken as a mandated policy.

To date, over 2.2 billion doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country, according to the government's CoWIN dashboard. These mainly include AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

While the numbers of first and second doses stand at 1.02 billion and 951 million, respectively, only 227 million booster doses have been administered till now.

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