The Union government in a short affidavit submitted before the Delhi High Court apprised that expert organisations in the country were presently examining the scientific evidence pertaining to the requirement of COVID-19 booster jabs.
It reads, "It is humbly submitted that the current knowledge about the duration of immunity offered by COVID-19 vaccines in India is limited and will clearly be known over a period of time only."
Further, the affidavit said that full biological characteristics of the SARS CoV-2 infection were not yet ascertained, and hence "under such circumstances the appropriateness or necessity of booster dose of COVID vaccine is yet to be decided".
The submission was in response to the HC order directing the GoI to submit a timeline of the proposed rollout of booster shots.
The bench had observed, "The decision should not be based on economics because no doubt it is an expensive proposition and the government is doing it free for most and not many people are having to pay for it. Maybe that is the consideration that the government does not want to give this at this stage, but then we don’t want to land in a situation that we are overly conservative on this, and we land up in a situation like we were in the second wave. We will actually lose the advantage of this vaccination.”
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