70 Per Cent People Who Took Booster Dose Didn’t Get Covid During 3rd Wave In India: Study

New Delhi: Seventy per cent of the people who received a booster dose of the Covid vaccine did not contract the disease during the third wave, according to a new study that covered around 6,000 people in India. The study led by Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the Indian Medical Association’s national task force on coronavirus, said that 45 per cent of the vaccinated people who did not take a precautionary dose reported Covid in the third wave.

Also Read: COVID-19: These Cities Make Masks Mandatory Yet Again As Cases Rise In India

The survey covered 5,971 vaccinated people, of which 24 per cent were aged below 40 and 50 per cent belonged to the 40-59 age group.

Women accounted for 45 per cent of the people surveyed, while 53 per cent were healthcare workers.
Of the 5,971 people, 2,383 took the booster dose and 30 per cent of them reported Covid during the third wave, it said. The boosted group also had a greater proportion of healthcare workers and higher N95 use.

The researchers also concluded that a long gap after the second dose correlated with a higher chance of infection during the third wave. Also, “giving a third dose before a six-month gap did not make a difference in the infection rate”, it said.

Also Read: Unvaccinated People Increase COVID-19 Risk For Those Who Are Vaccinated: Study

The study also showed that the third wave affected those aged below 40 the most — around 45 per cent of them contracted the disease.

Around 39.6 per cent in the 40-59 age cohort and around 31.8 per cent in the 60-79 age group reported Covid during the third wave. Only 21.2 per cent of the people aged above 80 were infected. Among the 2,311 people who were infected during the third wave, 4.8 per cent were asymptomatic while 53 per cent had mild symptoms. Moderate severity was reported by 41.5 per cent, while 0.69 per cent had severe disease.

The researchers said Covaxin and Covishield recipients had the same rate of infection in the third wave. A total of 5,157 took Covishield and 2010 (39 per cent) of them reported Covid during the third wave of the infection. Of the 523 people who took Covaxin, 210 (40 per cent) reported Covid. The third wave of the pandemic hit India in late December last year and subsided by March.

The government authorised a third dose of the same vaccine for healthcare and frontline workers, and the people aged above 60 from January 10 to mitigate the severity of infections, hospitalisation, and death.

Also Read: Covid: Over Six-Fold Rise In Patients Under Home Isolation In Delhi

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.