We have to ensure not only the production and rollout of all six vaccines approved in India but also have to expand the scale at which these are produced, rolled out and administered, as well as, exported. "Doing so, will also help India have a much bigger stock of Covid vaccines for its "Vaccine Maitri" programme to help other nations. That will also generate foreign capital via exports for our domestic manufacturers. India has approved these six vaccines so far: Covishield (made by Serum Institute of India), Covaxin (made by Bharath Biotech), Sputnik, Moderna (licensed to Cipla for marketing), Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine (licensed to Biological-E for domestic production) and ZyCovD (made by Zydus Cadila). Out of these six approved vaccines in India, Moderna, J&J and ZyCovD are yet to make a debut" informed Dr Suneela Garg.
Commendable vaccination in India but not uniform
India's vaccination rollout has been commendable given the realities of health systems and diversities that exist within the nation (and states), however, it is not uniform. "If we look at data, India has administered increasingly more doses every month since January 2021 (but it declined during 1-18 October 2021), and that too overcoming initial high degree of vaccine hesitancy. It is important to note that daily vaccination rate is also not uniform with some days witnessing the vaccination rate spiking up many times more than the average rate. These are important lessons learnt and will inform the next leg of the journey towards fully vaccinating all eligible people in the country" said Dr Ishwar Gilada.
Average vaccine doses administered per day in May 2021 in India was 19.69 lakh (1.969 million) doses daily, in June 2021 the average rose to 39.89 lakhs (3.989 million) doses daily, in July 2021 the average further went up to 43.41 lakhs (4.341 million) doses daily, in August 2021 the average doses per day reached 59.29 lakhs (5.929 million), in September 2021 the average daily doses went further up to 78.69 lakhs (7.869 million), but in first 18 days of October 2021, the average doses administered daily fell to 53.21 lakhs (5.321 million). It is important to note that the goal was to vaccinate 1 crore (10 million) every day to reach the target.
Dr Gilada reminds that "Time is of prime essence because all eligible people should be fully vaccinated worldwide within limited time duration. Though the WHO is aiming for all countries to fully vaccinate 70% of their population by June 2022, India plans to do that in next 70 days (by end of 2021) and the speed choosen is administering 2 crore (20 million) vaccine-doses per day."
On behalf of Organised Medicine Academic Guild, Dr Ishwar Gilada and Dr Suneela Garg recommended:
* As most at-risk people (healthcare and other frontline workers, senior citizens) were first vaccinated in January-February 2021, India should go by science-backed mandate to administer booster doses to those whose vaccine-protection might be declining, in early 2022. While we protect others it is also important to ensure that those fully vaccinated remain protected as well. This is our best shot to eventually hope that herd immunity will work leaving Covid behind us.
* Progress within the country has also been uneven. Some states like Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim are the best performing ones whereas some states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand are lagging behind with lower rate of either single-dose or fully vaccinated people in their population (than the average national single-dose rate of 51% and fully vaccination rate of 20% of population).
* In light of scientific evidence and public health rationale, India should reduce the gap between two doses of Covishield. This will help us accelerate progress as well as help more people to be fully protected earlier. Also we need to overcome gender gap, prioritise women.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
