"Hybrid, Not Herd Immunity, Keeps India Safe": Covid Panel Chief Dr NK Arora To NDTV

Dr NK Arora, Chairman of the Covid Working Group of NTAGI, told NDTV that there is a huge opacity in China about their vaccination status

India's fight against COVID-19 is shaping up much better than neighbouring China due to robust "hybrid immunity", the head of the country's vaccine task force told NDTV today in an exclusive interview.

Dr NK Arora, who has been closely involved with the rollout of vaccines from the onset of the pandemic, also told NDTV that there is a huge opacity in China about their vaccination status, the severity of cases and the kinds of variants spreading there.

"The situation in China has led us to activate high level precautions...there should be not a moment where we are scrambling," Dr Arora said.

He said India is much better placed in fighting the pandemic than China due to several factors, one of them being "hybrid immunity", which is a mixture of vaccination and natural immunity.