Low booster turnout needs more attention

It has now been nearly 40 days since India’s booster drive was thrown open to all adults. Third shots can be taken by those adults who completed nine months, or 39 weeks, after receiving the second dose. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that the road to achieving full booster coverage is going to be very different from the regular inoculation drive. According to health ministry data, till Wednesday, of the at least 126 million adults eligible for the third shot of the vaccine (this cohort of people received their second shots 39 weeks prior), only 31.4 million, or 25%, were boosted.

The highest booster coverage is among frontline and health care workers, where nearly two out of every three (66.6% and 62.2% respectively) eligible persons received their third shot. Among the elderly, 40.4% received their third shot. To be sure, these groups were deemed to be at the highest risk, and were thus the first cohort to be made eligible when the booster campaign was started on January 10.

But for the remaining, the numbers don’t look flattering. Only 2.7% of all eligible people between the age of 18 years and 45 years have been boosted, while this number is 2.2% for those between the age of 45 years and 60 years. A massive coverage gap between these population groups points to an area that needs focus from the government; the fact that people have to pay for these shots in most states could be one deterrent. The biggest lesson from India’s Omicron wave was that as long as people are sufficiently protected by vaccines, fatalities as well as disruptions to normal life can be contained. But a low turnout for booster shots may just be leaving an opening for possible future waves – one that must be addressed before it is too late.