Covid-19 surge in India: Senior citizens can take booster doses as precaution, says SII CEO

PTC News Desk: Amid the rise in Covid-19 cases in India, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawala said that current Covid-19 variants are mild and not severe and senior citizens can take booster doses as a precaution.

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While addressing the media, Adar Poonawala said, "We have produced 5-6 million doses as stock, current demand is zero in all hospitals. Current variants are mild and not severe. Senior citizens can take booster doses as a precaution".

He further stated that Covovax is also being provided in the United States of America and Europe.

What is Covovax ? 

Covovax is for the age group (12 and above). We are providing Covovax in the USA and Europe. It is the only Covid vaccine made in India which is approved in USA and Europe but demand is very small.

Notably, as per the report of UNICEF, public perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic in 52 out of 55 countries studied.

 The State of the World's Children 2023

For Every Child, Vaccination reveals the perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined by more than a third in the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan after the start of the pandemic.

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In the new data, collected by The Vaccine Confidence Project and published by UNICEF, China, India and Mexico were the only countries studied where the data indicates the perception of the importance of vaccines held firm or even improved. In most countries, people under 35 and women were more likely to report less confidence about vaccines for children after the start of the pandemic.