India, which began Covid vaccination on 16 January 2021, reported over 20% full vaccination of eligible population by mid-September 2021. Noted infectious-diseases expert Dr Ishwar Gilada, Secretary General of Organized Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG), said that "we applaud the efforts of healthcare and frontline workers who have toiled in taking the Covid vaccination drive to a new heights and creating a global record. On 17 September 2021, India vaccinated 25 million (2.5 crore) people, which is more than it had done in the first two months when the vaccination began (India had vaccinated 24.4 million (2.44 crore) during 16 January-14 March 2021). We expect the pace is maintainable and not unique for the day."
Yes, Dr Gilada is right. Maintaining the pace of over 10 million vaccinations daily is a long-standing promise of Indian government but we were able to meet it thrice before 17 September 2021. For instance, in the week preceding the 17 September feat of achieving 25 million vaccinations in 24 hours, India had vaccinated between 5.3 million to 7.8 million daily.
Average vaccine doses per day have been on a consistent rise in India in preceding months, but fall short of 10 million doses per day desired (and promised) average. Average doses 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, and in August 2021 the average doses per day reached 59.29 lakhs (5.929 million). So if we are to achieve universal vaccination of all eligible population, we need to maintain the pace of 10 million (or more) doses administered daily, and not just on special occasions.
Dr Suneela Garg, President of OMAG, and Dr Gilada wrote in their communique that while comparing India with other nations we should use science-based data of number of people infected or dead due to Covid per million population (or lakh), and not absolute numbers. For example, as on 18 September 2021, India ranks125th in Covid cases/million population and 120th in deaths/million population in 221 countries globally.
OMAG leaders Dr Gilada and Dr Garg call for equitable rollout of vaccination. "The challenges in terms of gender inequality need to be addressed through gender-sensitive policies, programming and healthcare services, which includes friendlier vaccination timings. The elderly population and difficult-to-reach population needs to be provided vaccines at the doorsteps. At no stage we can afford to be complacent with regard to vaccinations, addressing vaccine hesitancy, continued covid-appropriate behaviour and looking for new variants of concerns through genomic studies."
Only 3 out of 6 approved vaccines in India are currently being used
OMAG leadership of Dr Suneela Garg and Dr Ishwar Gilada point out that, of the six Covid vaccines licensed in India so far, 90% supplies are of Covishield, 9.6% of Covaxin and 0.4% of Sputnik. Moderna (licensed to Cipla for marketing), Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine (licensed to Biological-E for domestic production) and ZyCovD of Zydus Cadila are yet to make a debut. Alongside scaling up the supply side, it is equally important to expand India's capacity manifold to export vaccines to those countries in dire need of vaccines.
According to recent Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those who are fully vaccinated have 5 times reduced risk of getting infected with coronavirus infection, and in case they get infected with Covid, then they are likely to have 10 times reduced risk of hospitalization, and 10 times or more reduced risk of death.
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