'COVID booster dose not central theme at the moment' Says Balram Bhargava

New DELHI: The Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Balram Bhargava, said on Thursday that a booster dose for COVID-19 is not the central theme of scientific and public health discussions at the moment.

At a media briefing on the COVID situation in the country, Bhargava said that administering both doses of the vaccine is the major proirity now.

Talking about the ongoing vaccination drive in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that 20 per cent of India's adult population have received both the doses of the vaccine, while 62 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Bhushan said that 34 districts in the country are still reporting a weekly positivity rate of over 10 per cent, while 32 districts are reporting between 5-10 per cent weekly positive rate.

The Health Secretary said that Kerala and Mizoram continue to be the major concern areas with the southern state reporting 67.79 per cent of India's total COVID cases last week.

Kerala is the only state which has over 1 lakh active cases at present, while five states have over 10,000 active cases, including Mizoram (13,000), Andhra Pradesh (14,000), Karnataka (15,700), Tamil Nadu (16,000) and Maharashtra (53,000). According to Bhushan, India presently has 3,42,000 active cases. (IANS)

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