The Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) on Sunday advised against introducing a booster shot or third dose
to combat omicron variant of coronavirus and said any change in the time gap of Covishield shots in the
wake of rising omicron cases would not be a prudent move.

Also Read: India reports 7,774 new COVID cases, 306 deaths in last 24 hours

Dr. Samiran Panda, head of ICMR’s
epidemiology department, said that at this moment they would recommend only
two-dose vaccination.

Also Read: Delhi reports second case of Omicron variant, takes India’s tally to 33

“With omicron cases being mild not
only in India but the world over, there should not be any knee-jerk reaction
like introducing a third dose or recommending any change in the interval of
Covishield doses,” he was quoted as saying by Times of India.

“A decision on whether a third dose
would be required for immunocompromised individuals would be taken later,”
Dr. Panda added.

Also Read: Pfizer COVID-19 booster effective against omicron: Israeli study

He also said that the ICMR is currently
checking the scientific evidence of booster dose for the Indian terrain and the
technical advisory group would make an announcement regarding the same soon.

Dr. Panda insisted that at this point
India’s focus should be on completing two-dose vaccination for all adults as
the vaccination strategy seemed to be working well for India so far.

Responding to the demand from states like
Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka to reduce the gap between the two Covishield
doses, the ICMR scientist said scientific evidence from in-country reality was
showing that the present 84 days interval is fine.

Also Read: UK says it could exceed 1 million omicron infections by end of December

Virologist Dr. Shahid Jameel, meanwhile,
said a third shot would increase the number of circulating antibodies and it
had shown to increase the protection against symptomatic infection with omicron.

Also Read: 25 Omicron cases in India so far, all have ‘mild symptoms’: Centre

“We don’t know how well two doses
continue to protect against severe disease. In the UK, those who got the
AstraZeneca vaccine are getting a booster of the mRNA Pfizer or Moderna
vaccine. A third dose of AstraZeneca will not be very effective because of its
nature,” he said.