India: Govt suggests Covid-19 booster shots for those above 40

Covid-19 booster vaccines for those above 40, especially high-risk and high-exposure people, has been recommended by the Indian Sars-Cov-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (Insacog), a network of national testing labs of the government.

"Vaccination of all remaining unvaccinated at-risk people and consideration of a booster dose for those 40 years of age and over, first targeting the most high-risk/high-exposure may be considered since low levels of neutralising antibodies from current vaccines are unlikely to be sufficient to neutralise Omicron, although the risk of severe disease is still likely to be reduced," said an Insacog bulletin.

The network of testing labs noted that genomic surveillance would be critical for early detection of the presence of the variant, to enable necessary public health measures. “Monitoring travel to and from the known affected areas and contact tracing of Covid-19 cases with an epidemiological link to the affected areas has been implemented along with increased testing (with the sequencing of confirmed cases and possible SGTF based rapid screening),” said the bulletin.