New Delhi: Experts in India's health domain on Monday said that herd immunity through vaccination will play an important role in the third wave in the country.
"As of now, the country's 40 crore people have been vaccinated. We have to continue our vaccine strategy so that more and more people can be vaccinated and herd immunity through vaccination is a suitable option for the Indian population," said Dr Suneela Garg in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat in New Delhi.
Dr Garg had recently taken part in an international conference on epidemiology, clinical care and public policy and Covid 2021 and beyond.
"The conference also dwelt upon epidemiology of next wave for Covid-19 in India and achieving herd immunity," said Dr Garg.
As per statistics from John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, 83,037,953 people have been fully vaccinated which accounts for 6.08 percent of the Indian population.
Referring to the third wave, Dr Garg who is the president of the Organised Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG) said that whenever a new virus appears, waves are bound to happen.
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"The situation, however, depends upon how many in the population are susceptive and how many have been vaccinated," said Garg.
Referring to the serosurvey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Garg said that 60 percent seropositive have been found among our population.
Garg who is also the president of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) said that approximately 20 crore of the Indian population is still vulnerable to infection.
"This is of course not a big number and the third wave should not be big in nature. However, it all depends on how much Covid appropriate behaviour we follow," added Dr Garg.
Talking about the vulnerability of children, Dr Garg said that in the first wave and in the current second wave children were also equally affected.
"The infection among children was mild in nature. But we can't lower our guard. In fact, we have to be very much prepared with our health infrastructure," said Dr Garg.
As per the government estimate, the infection rate in children under 10 years was 3 percent whereas 10 percent of the children in the 11-20 years age group were infected.
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She further hopes that the quantity of vaccine production will be increased in the coming months.
"In June, 11 crore vaccines were distributed across the country which went up to 13.5 crore in July...we believe that in the coming months the number will grow further so that more and more people can be vaccinated," said Dr Garg.
