Booster shots may be flagging, but India is ready for festival season

1 min read . Updated: 13 Oct 2022, 09:35 AM IST Nandita Venkatesan

The last two festival seasons had seen increased mobility and a spike in infections. Photo: Reuters

More than 70% of adults have given the third shot of Covid-19 booster dose a miss.

On 30 September, India concluded a 75-day special drive to lift its dismal covid-19 booster dose coverage. The promise of free “precautionary" doses to all adults raised the coverage from 8% to 27%. However, this means more than 70% of adults have given the third shot a miss. As it has not really led to any notable spike in infections, Indians are ready to celebrate the best festival season in three years. With the World Health Organization (WHO) offering its most upbeat remarks yet, that an end to the pandemic is in sight, Mint looks at where things stand and how important boosters are.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nandita Venkatesan

Nandita Venkatesan is a data journalist at Mint, and has a keen interest in understanding the usefulness of data in driving sound public discourse and informing policymaking. She has over four years of experience across journalism and health research. She previously worked with the Economic Times, Mumbai, and the Vaccine Confidence Project in the UK. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Nandita also pursued a masters’ in public policy from University of Oxford as Chevening-Weidenfeld Hoffmann scholar.