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States told to expedite Covid vaccination drive: What prompted govt's action
The moves come as alarm grows over what looks like the beginning of India’s second wave of infections, underscoring the need to scale up the vaccination process
The Centre on Tuesday asked the states to expedite the Covid-19 vaccination drive and said it has dispatched teams to places where the cases of the disease are rising. Here is what prompted the moves:
• The moves come as alarm grows over what looks like the beginning of India’s second wave of infections, underscoring the need to scale up the vaccination process.
• Data shows that the seven-day average of new cases across India dropped to its lowest on February 11, when it touched 10,988, but it has shown a sustained increase of 18% since then to reach 12,971 on Monday.
• The increase has been fuelled in particular by Maharashtra, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, where cases have grown by 127%, 55% and 54% respectively.
• The health ministry wrote to these states and two more, asking them to speed up vaccinations.
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• Experts say it is now a race against time for India to begin a wave of vaccinations that will beat that of infections.
• India may need to significantly review its approach, relaxing curbs to allow anyone who wants a dose to take it, let employers purchase in bulk to give to their staff, and allow more private involvement, including open market sales.
• Over the last week, India has administered roughly 450,000 doses every day, roughly 52% of the target for each day based on the number of sessions held.
• For each session, 100 people are expected to get shots.
• On average, 8,630 sessions were held daily last week.
• Officials have said that they expect to accelerate the drive to deliver 5 million doses a day.
• But, according to the government’s protocol, only those above 50 or 60 will be the first to get doses to come next month when the first of the general public will be covered.
• India began its vaccination campaign on January 16 at a time when the epidemic was receding in the country. This gave the country a unique headway to build up an immune capital and potentially avoid a second wave, which in other countries has wreaked havoc.
• In the UK, for instance, the second wave began in early December and the country rolled out its vaccination programme around the same time.
• But the campaign was not fast enough to get ahead of the outbreak, and the country went on to experience its most devastating wave, which peaked three weeks later.
