Herd immunity not a strategic option for India, says govt

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday said herd immunity cannot be a strategic choice or option for a country of India’s size as this would come at a huge cost in terms of lakhs of infected people and many deaths. Following social norms till a vaccine comes is the only viable option, it said.

“In a country the size of (and with) a population like India, herd immunity can’t be a strategic choice or option. It can only be an outcome, and that too at a very high cost, as it means lakhs of people would have to be infected, get hospitalised and many would die in the process,” health ministry OSD Rajesh Bhushan said.

The comments come in the wake of rising cases and arguments by researchers that there may be hope of herd immunity based on sero-surveys and low infection rates in India.