India will enter a decisive phase in its battle against Covid-19 with the rollout of the vaccination drive three days from now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined its importance by chairing meetings over the last.
Interview: Could Covid-19 vaccination undo India’s hard-won battle against polio?
India has suspended the polio immunisation drive to make way for Covid-19 vaccination. An expert virologist weighs in on the risks. Jan 13, 2021 · 04:23 pm A child getting polio drops during a polio eradication programme in Jammu February 19, 2012. | Mukesh Gupta/Reuters
Exactly a decade ago, on January 13, 2011, India reported its last case of polio. Until the early 1990s, the highly infectious viral disease was hyperendemic in India. It resulted in an average of 500 to 1,000 children being paralysed every day. Scroll.in speaks to virologist Dr T Jacob John, the man behind the “pulse polio” campaign, on what it took to eradicate polio. The programme is seen as one of India’s biggest public health successes.
European
The Indian authorities may have given a go-ahead to two COVID-19 vaccines (Covishield by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech), the task of administering a two-dose vaccine to over 1.3 billion people will be nothing short of a logistical nightmare.
With the approval of the two vaccines, the government authorities have also re-launched the Co-WIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network). The indigenously built platform, which will work as an intelligence ecosystem, is an updated version of eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network), and has been developed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
eVIN & Co-WIN
The eVIN platform was rolled out in 2015 under India’s National Health Mission to vaccinate 27 million women and 29 million children annually. The platform digitized vaccine stocks and monitored the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application. Launched across 12 states of India, e-VIN sup
All opened Covid-19 vax vials must be used within 4 hours
All opened Covid-19 vax vials must be used within 4 hours
ByChethan KumarChethan Kumar / Updated: Jan 11, 2021, 22:23 IST
(This story was first published in The Times of India on Jan 11, 2021)
Bengaluru: Covid-19 vaccines at least the first few batches which are likely to be used beginning January 16 should be used or discarded within four hours of the
vial being opened since there are no
vial monitors at present.
Due to non-availability of vaccine vial monitors (VVMs) because of the emergency, the government has done away with the
open vial policy that allows storage and use of vaccines for a much longer time after the vial has been opened. Sources said each vial contains 10 doses of the vaccine.