Year of good hope, a harbinger of renewal and recovery. That’s what the world expected 2023 to be. The Indian population too had been through three extremely stressful years, after an unexpected pandemic left them shaken. The three waves of Covid-19 saw lakhs of people affected by the virus, many lost their lives, and the economy too took a bad hit.

But the beginning of 2023 was different. Just 265 people, in a population of 1.37 billion, tested positive for Covid on January 1. Things remained bright until mid-March, when Covid cases started rising again, much to the worry of people. On April 17, more than 7,000 people tested positive for the virus. The total number of active cases climbed to 61,000 as of April 18.

Considering the situation, the union government asked States to be alert. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also ordered mock drills in States to help review the preparedness of the administration.

Pace of booster doses

At the same time, the pace of administration of booster doses remains quite low throughout the country. On April 7, only 16.5 per cent of the country’s population and 24 per cent of the fully-vaccinated population received booster shots. This is at a time when more than 90 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.

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In a situation like this, will the government ramp up its efforts to provide booster jabs to more people? Let’s dive into the digits and see what they have to spill.

India began vaccinating senior citizens, healthcare and frontline workers with booster doses at the beginning of 2022. That was around the time when the Omicron wave of Covid peaked in India. However, the daily number of vaccine doses started falling from January 29, 2022. Coincidentally, the number of Covid cases also started falling at that time. At this time, only senior citizens, health and frontline workers could get a free booster in India.

Then from the beginning of June, Covid cases started rising again in India. On July 24, it peaked with more than 21,000 people testing positive for Covid in a single day. Incidentally, on July 15, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare began a 75-day drive to administer booster doses for people above 18 for free. As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (75th Anniversary of Indian Independence), the government initiated free vaccine coverage.

75 days of free jabs

Data from CoWIN (Cowin is a web portal by the government of India that has details of vaccine registration) suggests that the drive was a success. In those 75 days, 15.75 crore people in the country received a booster. That is 75 per cent of the total number of people who had had a booster dose until that day. However, the numbers started declining from October 1.

Stopping a new wave

Banerjee advocates for an emphasis on enhancing an individual’s overall health as a prudent measure. “Lifestyle and obesity should be controlled because this pandemic has the vulnerability among people who are obese and who are comorbid,” he adds.

Moreover, he highlights the need for elderly individuals and those with comorbidities to take ample precautions, including the avoidance of crowded places, to mitigate the risk of contracting the virus. 

(With inputs from AJ Vinayak; Visualisations by Balakrishnan K)

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