The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), the apex association of the country, to create awareness and understanding about the booster dose to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on people’s health and welfare, recently organized a webinar on ‘Booster Dose for COVID-19’ under the ‘Illness to wellness’ campaign at New Delhi.

Commenting on the growing concerns, Chairman of ASSOCHAM CSR Council, Anil Rajput said, “the new variant ‘Omicron’ has more mutations and a higher rate of transmissibility therefore it is important to increase the pace of vaccination and a need for a booster dose. While we must be wary of not over vaccinating, optimally utilizing surplus vaccines by administration it to people with comorbidities and front-line workers needs to considered”, he added.

Dr Gautam Bhansali, Practicing physician and consultant, Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences said, "Different variants are still coming out and countries like The US and UK are still recovering from the impact, booster doses are important as they reduce the severity of the impact." 

"The vaccine administration would also depend on the individual immunity and efficacy of the previous vaccines", Dr Bhansali said.

The panel also discussed the vaccine hesitancy that was prevalent amongst the people.