Few takers for booster jabs, govt to probe why
NEW DELHI: Taking note of the low turnout for Covid-19 booster shots in the national capital, senior officials from the Delhi health department said they will conduct a survey to explore the reasons for the depleted numbers at vaccination centres for the third dose and undertake necessary remedial steps.
Delhi government data shows that the city has administered a total of 907,000 booster doses since the government started the drive in January this year.
What makes this gap even more apparent are numbers from nine months ago – on August 10, a little over 3 million people (3,000,438) in the Capital had received their second shot of the vaccine. This entire cohort is now eligible for their booster shot (a gap of nine month has now elapsed since their second shot). This means that more than two out of every three person eligible for their booster shot has not yet claimed their third shot, data shows.
“The survey will help us exactly understand why people are not coming to get their booster doses. We had not faced this problem during the first and the second dose drives. Based on the responses of the people, we will get a better idea on how to take our drive forward,” said a senior health official.
Senior officials of Delhi health department said the slow pace of booster vaccinations can be attributed to a phenomenon that experts have termed “vaccine fatigue”, which is being faced by many cities across the globe. Vaccine fatigue happens for a variety of reasons, including the fear of symptoms (minor fever, body aches etc) after each vaccine dose and contracting Covid despite being fully vaccinated.
“Vaccine fatigue is essentially when people start getting discouraged to take the precautionary dose because of the post-vaccine symptoms... Many also think that getting vaccinated is a sure shot way of dodging a Covid infection; but when they or any of their family members contract the infection despite being vaccinated, they tend to think that vaccines are not useful...,” explained the official, asking not to be named.
District-wise data shows that of all the 11 districts in the national capital, north Delhi has fared the worst in administering booster shots — only 44,998 shots have been administered here till date. This was followed by the northeast district (50,925) and east Delhi (58,391), the data showed.
Officials said while low turnout for precautionary doses was worrying, it was important to note that one of the factors driving the slow pace was also the nine-month gap mandated by the government between the second dose and the booster shot.
Another factor is also the high infection spread among the community, which also invariably delays a person getting the booster dose as health experts have advised that ideally, a gap of three months should be maintained between contracting the Covid infection and receiving the booster shot.
Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said milder symptoms and shorter duration of the infection currently is also discouraging people from getting a booster dose.
“We saw the worst of Covid during the Delta wave last year and seeing its consequences, people rushed to get vaccinated. Many gated colonies were also barring entry of workers who did not get vaccinated. Now, the infection has become so mild...that people don’t feel that taking a booster dose is necessary,” he said.