New Delhi: Expressing concern over the increasing number of breakthrough infections across India, the Union Health Ministry has asked all states and union territories to monitor such cases very closely.
A senior official in the health ministry said that samples from people reporting breakthrough infections have been collected from different states and genome sequencing was being carried out to confirm virus variants.
When people get infected after vaccination, experts and scientists term these cases as “breakthrough” infections because of the reason that the virus broke through the protective barrier the vaccine provides.
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However, breakthrough infections of late have become more frequent than previously expected and are probably increasing because of growing dominance of the Delta variant.
“But infections in vaccinated people are still very rare and usually cause mild or no symptoms,” said the official.
It is found that the breakthrough infections occur mainly from close contact, such as working space, party, restaurant or stadium.
Such infections are also more likely among health care workers who are in frequent contact with infected patients.
"Breakthrough infections are happening mostly because of the presence of Delta variant. However, this is for sure that such cases do not seem to be severe if people are vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine," said Dr Suneela Garg, senior health expert and president of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM).
Dr Garg emphasised that more and more people should get two doses of the vaccine.
"As far as Indian vaccines are concerned, both of them can fight against the existing variants of the virus," reiterate Dr Garg.
According to an estimate, around 2.6 lakh people of the total vaccinated people so far have tested positive for COVID-19 breakthrough infections. Many of them got infected after getting the first dose.
However, infections contracted after vaccination dropped by more than 50 per cent for people who received both doses as far as breakthrough infections are concerned.
A study released by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has emphasised that COVID-19 vaccines reduce need for hospitalisation and chances of mortality in case of a breakthrough infection.
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“The Delta variant of SARS-COV-2 was behind the majority of clinical cases of breakthrough infection of COVID-19 but only 9.8 percent cases required hospitalisation and fatality was observed in only 0.4 percent cases,” the ICMR study has said.
For the ICMR study, samples were collected from as many as 17 states and union territories including Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Puducherry, New Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand.
The study found that southern, western, eastern, and north-western regions of India predominantly reported breakthrough infections from mainly Delta and then Kappa variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Out of the 677 patients analysed, 85 acquired COVID-19 infection after taking the first dose of the vaccine, while 592 were infected after receiving both doses of the vaccine.
Ironically, Kerala, which accounts for over 50 per cent of new COVID-19 cases in the country, has recorded 40,000 breakthrough cases.
Aware of the increasing number of breakthrough infections, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a letter sent to Kerala government, said that the vaccine breakthrough cases should be investigated thoroughly and an adequate number of samples from such cases be sent for whole-genome sequencing to NCDC Delhi or INSACOG genome sequencing laboratories.
