India has administered over 110 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Currently, only two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are allowed to be injected into an eligible person. For better protection against Covid-19, the central government is likely to allow a booster dose to all or certain categories of individuals based on medical conditions.

The government may soon release a policy document on the third dosing of a Covid-19 vaccine. Reports quoted Dr NK Arora, co-chair of INSACOG, a 28-lab consortium set up under the Union health ministry to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2, as warning people against going for third or booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine as yet. A booster dose is currently not applicable for any Covid-19 vaccine certification.

However, even as the government is working on India’s booster dose policy for Covid-19, there is a grave situation with over 10 crore people missing their second dose of the vaccine. This comes as a warning to the prevailing ‘complacency’ about vaccination with Covid-19 cases remaining low for months in the majority of states.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has highlighted this problem saying over 12 crore people are due for their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in India. Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul, a key member of the government’s vaccination programme, earlier said the number of partially vaccinated who had overshot the date for the second dose stood at over 10 crore.

According to Covid-19 dashboard on CoWin, over two-third (67.6 per cent) of all vaccine doses administered in India is the first dose. This data is highly skewed against complete vaccination – epidemiologists consider partial vaccination chinks in the armour in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fact that Covid-19 vaccine doses are no longer in short supply, health experts point to communities growing complacent and indifferent to the need of protection against the viral infection. The campaign about ‘living with the virus’ has taken a different curve.

This has come at a time when many countries with better second-dose coverage have reported a spike in Covid-19 cases. Mansukh Mandaviya too cited the examples of Singapore, Russia, the UK and China which are facing a serious rise in Covid-19 cases afresh. China has resorted to aggressive lockdowns in many cities including the capital Beijing across provinces.

To deal with low second-dose vaccination coverage, the government is pushing initiatives such as ‘Har ghar dastak’ (knock every door) for vaccine inoculation. The government’s campaign also focuses on spreading a message that vaccination should not lead to relaxation in Covid-Appropriate Behaviour (CAB). Vaccination considerably reduces the chance of serious illness due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. CAB prevents or minimizes the risk of catching the infection.