1342 Unprecedented: The Central and state governments are grappling with the gigantic task of administering the Covid vaccines. PTI
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr
Senior Journalist
The sense of relief and euphoria felt by the people and the Modi government over the availability of Covid-19 vaccines at the beginning of the new year is understandable after the long lockdown of 2020 and the mental and physical stress it caused all round. The Central and state governments are now grappling with the gigantic task of administering the vaccines manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. There are going to be hurdles and glitches as the operation unfolds, but the sense of helplessness is gone. With the vaccines at hand, the hospitals and the frontline health workers with auxiliary support from the administration at all levels can succeed in immunising a large section of the population during the year.
A concrete Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan is finally taking shape in India.
Once a vaccine is available in the country, the government plans to immunise 30 million citizens 10 million healthcare workers in private and government-owned hospitals, and 20 million frontline workers that includes police, defence, and municipal workers in the first round, according to a Dec. 8 press release from the ministry of health and family welfare.
So far, three vaccine makers have applied for an emergency use authorisation of their coronavirus vaccines in India. These are Pfizer, Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and Bharat Biotech for its Covaxin.
Vaccine optimism and the scientific uncertainty link
Updated:
Updated:
January 16, 2021 10:03 IST
Amidst the vaccine rollout, there is a critical need for a climate of transparency and data sharing for scrutiny and debate
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Amidst the vaccine rollout, there is a critical need for a climate of transparency and data sharing for scrutiny and debate
With its robust domestic vaccine industry and strong fundamentals of the Universal Immunisation Programme, India is now embarking on the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination programme, on January 16, 2021. This represents the forging of a novel public-private collaboration wherein the vaccine supply is under the responsibility of Indian pharma companies and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the implementation of the vaccination programme.
India will launch its most ambitious and the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drive on Saturday. Inoculating the country’s vast and distributed population is a big challenge but India’s past experience in mass vaccination will come in handy here.
The current Covid-19 vaccination drive also leans heavily on processes, manpower, database and experience of the Universal Immunisation Programme that vaccinated over 27 million pregnant women and 25 million infants every year.
Much before modern vaccine interventions were developed in the West and brought to India by the British, this important and cost-effective public health intervention tool was well known to Indians. Ancient literary evidence suggests smallpox inoculation was practised in India and a few other countries as early as 1000 AD, writes Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, a leading health system expert, in an article published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research.