News Analysis India

Tag: Covid vaccination

  • Government should issue white paper on COVID-vaccination strategy: Congress to PM Modi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday said the government should issue a white paper on its COVID-vaccination strategy, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accelerate the work on inoculating all Indians against the viral disease on a war footing.

    Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said this is not the time for image-building but to help the people in need during the pandemic.

    He also expressed concern over the spread of the coronavirus in villages and said the prime minister needs to work together with the states to step up medical facilities in rural areas and vaccinate more and more people.

    “We demand that the government issue a white paper on its vaccination policy for all to know how many vaccines have been procured and are in the pipeline to vaccinate all Indians,” Shukla told reporters.

    “This is not the time to indulge in image-building. Forget about your image, save people’s lives instead. Set aside your image management and put together all your energies in helping people come out of COVID. Try and take everyone together,” he said.

    “I would urge the Prime Minister to take it on an emergency basis. He should speak to all the Chief Ministers on the vaccination programme and it should be taken up in such a way by which it should be treated as if there is a war like situation. Then only a solution can be found and the chain can be broken,” he said.

    The Congress leader, who is in-charge of the party’s Himachal Pradesh affairs, said the coronavirus is spreading in villages, which is a cause of worry.

    He highlighted a lack of testing facilities, hospitals, doctors and medical infrastructure in rural areas.

    Shukla also alleged that BJP-ruled states and the Centre were hiding data pertaining to deaths due to Covid and demanded they reveal the real figures.

    “The number of corona-infected patients may have reduced, but the death rate is still high, which is of concern. This is a big challenge for us now,” Shukla said.

    He said according to experts, around 90 lakh people have to be vaccinated daily to break the chain of the virus, but the current vaccination rate is very slow.

    “If the virus chain does not break, then the third wave is imminent. I would urge the central government and the prime minister to procure vaccines on a war footing and negotiate on behalf of the states,” the Congress leader said, adding that the vaccines should be made available in the open market.

  • Covid-cured must wait three months for vaccination, says Centre

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Those who have got Covid infections, with or without their first shot, should wait for three months before vaccination after recovery.

    These fresh guidelines, as suggested by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration, were accepted by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday.

    The recommendations have been based on the evolving situation of the Covid pandemic and emerging global scientific evidence and experience, said the government and added that the new guidelines have been shared with the states.

    The clarification sought to put to rest the concerns that delaying vaccination for those infected and then recovered from Covid could be largely due to vaccine shortage and may be not evidence based.

    The recommendations by the expert group have said that for individuals having lab test proven SARS-2 Covid illness, vaccination should be deferred by three months after recovery.

    Also, patients who have been given anti-SARS-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma should wait for three months from the date of discharge from the hospital before taking the shot.

    “Individuals who have received at least the first dose and got Covid infection before completion of the dosing schedule, the second dose should be deferred by three months after clinical recovery from Covid-19 illness,” the guidelines say.

    People with any other serious general illness requiring hospitalization or ICU care should also wait for 4-8 weeks before getting the Covid19 vaccine, while vaccination is recommended for all lactating women.

    ALSO READ | How to brace for the coming third wave of coronavirus

    There is no requirement for screening of the vaccine recipients by rapid antigen test prior to Covid vaccination, the government has said.

    An individual can donate blood after 14 days of either receipt of Covid vaccine or testing RTPCR negative, if suffering from the disease.

    The Centre however added that the matter of vaccination of pregnant women is under discussion and further deliberation by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization.

    It has now written to states to direct the concerned officials to take note of these recommendations and undertake necessary action for their effective implementation.

    States have been advised to ensure effective dissemination of the information to service providers as well as the general public, through use of all channels of information and communication in the local languages.

    The Union government has also asked states to undertake training of the vaccination staff at all levels.

    The fresh advisory on Covid vaccination comes soon after it was decided, based on suggestions by the expert committee, to raise the gap between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks, as compared to an interval of 6-8 weeks recommended earlier.

  • Centre shares info on vaccine supply till June 15, asks states to prepare plan

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked states to prepare a district-wise and vaccination centre-wise plan for the administration of Covid vaccine till mid-June, and publicise it, in order to avoid overcrowding at inoculation centres.

    The figure shared by the Union government said that between May 1 and June 15, a total of 5,86,29 000 doses will be provided to the states under the central quota. While 70% of the vaccine doses are to be used for the second jabs of the most vulnerable 45 plus population, 30% is to be used for administering first jabs to those in this population group.

    No vaccine doses supplied by the Centre however, can be used for administering shots to the 18-44 year age group. 

    In addition, as per information received from vaccine manufacturers of Covishield and Covaxin, a total of 4 crore, 87 lakh and 55 thousand doses are available till end of next month for direct procurement by states.

    Last week, the government said that it is supplying states with 1.92 crore doses of Covid vaccine between May 16 and May 31, which includes 162.5 lakh doses of Covishield and 29.49 lakh doses of Covaxin.

    ALSO READ | India could get fourth Covid vaccine as Zydus Cadila set to seek nod for ZyCoV-D

    The Centre  on Wednesday asserted that it has already shared a clear supply timeline with states till June and in order to ensure efficient and judicious utilization of available doses for successful implementation of Covid vaccination drive, states have been asked to prepare a clear plan for this period.

    Apart from preparing a district-wise and vaccination centre-wise plan for administration of Covid vaccines, states have also been instructed to use multiple media platforms for dissemination of such a plan to enhance awareness among the masses.

    Also, states and private vaccination centres have been advised to publish their vaccination calendar on CoWIN digital platform in advance, while desisting from publishing single day vaccination calendars.

    It also said that the states should see that there is no overcrowding at vaccination centres and the process of booking appointments on CoWIN is hassle-free.

    As of now, the states should make advance plans for administration of Covid vaccine till June 15, said the health ministry.

    “The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from Covid continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level,” said the government.

    Till Wednesday morning, India has administered a total of 18,58,09,302 vaccine doses of which nearly 64 lakh jabs have been given to those in the 18-44 age group. 

  • Keeping a close watch on vaccine breakthrough cases, deaths: Centre

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid concerns that breakthrough Covid infections and risk of severe disease despite vaccinations against coronavirus may be much higher than the results from clinical trial data, the Centre on Monday maintained that it had kept a close watch on such incidences.

    “The risk of infection in the recipients of Covid vaccines is much lesser (than the unvaccinated population) but there is a small chance that a tiny fraction of people can get the infection despite the vaccinations as vaccines are not 100% efficacious,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

    There is one more advantage of the vaccines that even those who get the infection despite the shots, will likely not get the severe disease and recovery will be faster, he said.

    VK Paul, member health, Niti Aayog said that ICMR is keeping a record of breakthrough infections.

    “As said earlier, breakthrough infections are rare but in a dynamic situation we should watch it carefully,” he said. “But we should remember that vaccine recipients are protected to (only) a certain level and therefore in an overwhelming situation, risk remains and therefore all are requested to continue taking precaution.”

    ALSO READ | India could get fourth Covid vaccine as Zydus Cadila set to seek nod for ZyCoV-D

    The response comes on a day the Indian Medical Association released a list of 270 doctors who have died in India during the second wave of the pandemic, the highest deaths reported from Bihar (78) and Uttar Pradesh (37), followed by Delhi (29).

    Though the association has not made the vaccination status available of each of the doctors who have died, its office bearers said many of them had taken either both or at least one dose of Covid19 vaccine.

    Sixty-three-year-old K K Agarwal, leading cardiologist and former IMA president who succumbed to the infectious disease on Tuesday, for instance, had also completed his two dose Covid vaccination schedule as per information provided by the association sources. 

    Last month, ICMR director general Balram Bhargava had said that breakthrough infection rates seen in India thus far were negligible with only 2 to 4 infections reported per 10,000 inoculations.

    He, however, had not elaborated on whether or how many of these infections led to severe disease or deaths.

    Many experts have pointed out that this data collection by the ICMR has been patchy and delayed and may not be giving the actual picture on breakthrough infections and severe disease despite vaccinations.

  • Two held for charging money to book vaccination slots in Madhya Pradesh

    By PTI
    BETUL: Police have arrested two men for allegedly offering COVID-19 vaccination slots to people by charging Rs 800 for a booking in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul city, an official said on Tuesday.

    The accused, Narendra Yadav and Dinesh Kalme, ran a WhatsApp group named ‘Vaccine Slots Available’, offering bookings to people in the 18 to 44 age group at Rs 800 for a slot, Ganj police station in-charge Praveen Kumre said.

    District vaccination officer Dr Arvind Bhatt had made a complaint about this, he said.

    The two accused were arrested on Monday and their mobile phones were also seized, the police official said.

    They were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, he said.

    As per government’s guidelines, the vaccination for the 18-44 age group is being conducted on the basis of slots pre-booked through the CoWIN portal.

  • Continuous efforts being made to ramp up COVID vaccine supply in big way: PM Modi

    Asserting that vaccination is a strong way to fight COVID, Modi said myths about it have to be collectively rooted out.

  • ‘Prioritise beneficiaries of second dose’: Centre to states amid vaccine shortage

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid a massive Covid vaccine shortage that has slowed the pace of immunisation against coronavirus across the country, the Centre has now asked the states to prioritise the beneficiaries of the second dose and ensure that the recommended vaccination schedule is maintained.

    The Centre has also asked states to utilize supplies of vaccines through the central quota in 70:30 ratio for the second dose and first dose respectively.

    The directive comes amid concerns in most states that the recommended vaccination schedule for a large number of beneficiaries is getting hampered due to inadequate supplies.

    ALSO READ | Over 90 lakh COVID vaccine doses still with states, will receive 10 lakh more in three days: Centre

    As per the government guidelines, the recommended gap between two doses of Covaxin is 4-6 weeks and for Covishield the suggested interval is 4-8 weeks.

    Under the new liberalised and decentralised vaccination policy since May 1, all the supplies sent out can be used only for people above 45 years while beneficiaries in the 18–44-year age group can get jabs accessed by states and private hospitals separately.

    There are anecdotal reports that many in the 45 plus age group, who have taken their first shots, are struggling to secure vaccination slots on the government’s portal as there is no preference given to them over those who are to get the first shots.

    It is in this context that the fresh directive by the Centre comes. It has also asked states to carry out a regular review of coverage of vaccination drive to formulate and implement the strategy for such prioritization.

    An effective communication strategy must be implemented for full two-dose protection to all priority beneficiary groups, the states have also been instructed.

    ALSO READ | EXPLAINER: Why patents on COVID vaccines are so contentious

    As per the figure shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 16.50 crore doses have been administered in the country so far of which 13.21 crore are the first doses while 3.29 crore are the second doses.

    Till Friday morning, 11.81 lakh people in the 18–44-year age group had received their first jabs but it is all mostly through corporate hospitals or state quota.

    The Centre on Friday said that while the government has already provided more than 17.35 crore doses to the states for free so far, more than 90 lakh doses are still available with them.

    In addition, around 10 lakh doses are set to reach states within 3 days. Many states have said that their vaccination programme is crawling owing to supply issues even though there is a great rush for inoculations.

  • Covid second wave is nearing its peak: Noted virologist Dr T Jacob John

    Express News Service
    The second wave has been brutal. When will it end? What about the herd immunity that was talked about? And how vital is our vaccination drive? With cases surging and worries too, The New Indian Express spoke to leading virologist Dr T Jacob John to gain a better understanding. Excerpts from the interview:

    Has the scale and speed of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in India taken you by surprise or will you say it was always expected?

    Yes indeed, the scale and speed of spread in second wave took me by surprise. That was because I, like everyone else, was under the impression that India had only the “founder variant” Wuhan virus, which was later (April-May 2020) replaced by “D614G” variant.  I was sure that D614G cannot cause a second wave. And it did not. The second wave is mostly being driven by new variants — UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (called B.1.28 and as P.1) variants plus two so-called Indian variants (B.1.617 and B.1.618), possibly others. We also had B.1.36 (called N440K). These crept up but no one was checking for these variants — and government, ICMR, INSACOG, the three responsible agencies failed India. Why no one was watching out is not known but the ultimate place where the buck must stop is the National Disaster Management Agency, which is directly under Union Government. We saved a lot of funds by not establishing virology labs/employing virologists in the Health Management System and now we pay its price in the virus surprising everyone. 

    The second wave of infections has been even worse in terms of the impact as the country was largely unprepared in terms of health infrastructure and resources like oxygen despite battling the pandemic for over a year. Where do you think we went wrong?

    In normal times, the healthcare infrastructure was always overstretched — we have only 1/6th of the required hospital beds; 2/3rds of doctors and 3/4ths of nurses. Do you not remember that in Gorakhpur, some years ago, many children had died due to oxygen shortage and one paediatrician was penalized for it? Even during the first wave, our healthcare resources were overstretched. So, the suboptimal healthcare infrastructure could not cope with the sudden surge in demand. I hear rural areas are badly affected, but that does not come in the news. Our budget for human health should optimally be at least 7-8% of national GDP, but actually it is only some 2%, or about a quarter (of that). We get what we pay for.   

    ALSO READ | Helping Handles: How social media and youth stood hand-in-hand as a digital COVID helpline

    The official fatality rate is under 1.2 % but it’s clear that deaths due to Covid-19 are being hugely undercounted. What is your understanding of the situation from metros, small cities and even villages?

    What difference does it make if it is higher? Will it change the way Covid management is approached? No. Then why seek accuracy when no other data has accuracy? The overall death rate is low in India for three reasons. One gross under-reporting; second, demographic advantage, with 30% of population below 15 years and only 30% above 45 years. Only 5% are over 65 — in Europe and US it is 13-15%. Death will be low in a younger population. Third, all those vulnerable to die from communicable diseases have probably died already because India has no communicable diseases control programme. There is no policy even to control TB, only to treat TB for mortality reduction. 

    If the government will not create policies based on data, then having data will not help. Data collection is also expensive. India has lived all these years without data, reliable or validated, so why this need for data now? I am being rather “cynical” because I have been writing about these lacunae for decades but no other scientist or public health person has supported the demand for a system to have data to drive policy and responses.  

    Till a couple of months ago, we were hearing the term “herd immunity” a lot but it has vanished from the discourse completely. With the size and scale of infections, do you think attaining natural herd immunity is still possible? Or is this virus too smart to evade immune response by mutating quickly?

    Yes, this term was in fashion. My definition of herd immunity is the proportion of the community that has immunity. People confused “herd immunity threshold” and threshold. Herd immunity threshold is the herd immunity level that is compatible with the epidemic. For D614G, it was believed to be 60%.  I feel that our population was less vulnerable to the infection than in other countries; therefore, our herd immunity threshold was about 50%. That means at 25% herd immunity the first wave peaked and it ended when 50% was reached. So, at the end of the first wave 50% or 690 million Indians had been infected. The second wave is in the remaining 50%. The herd immunity threshold for the viruses in second wave has to be higher — perhaps 70%. Herd immunity is a valuable concept. There is no evidence that the variants are evading immunity. Covaxin immunity has been proved to be effective against all new variants.    

    ALSO READ | Fully protected only after second dose of Covid vaccine: Experts

    What is the course of the pandemic going to be in India now? Will there be more devastating waves like the one we are seeing now?

    The second wave is nearing its peak. If it peaks soon, after eight weeks from the start, it should end in another eight weeks, by the end of June. If new variants with high transmission efficiency emerge, and if they are able to evade immunity, we could have a small third wave. However, at this time, predictions are more like wishful thinking. We must prepare for a third wave — even if it is unlikely.  

    What role do you think vaccines will play in controlling the pandemic and what do you think of the government’s vaccination policy so far?

    Vaccines are the most powerful tool to control any epidemic. For effective control, the herd immunity threshold has to be vaccinated. But we will not have enough vaccine even to cover a fraction of the herd immunity threshold. We know that infection itself has to now reach herd immunity threshold to contain even the second wave. In other words, India is far too late to introduce vaccination. And the required speed — ideally faster than infection — will not be met either. Reason? Government did not factor in vaccines in the control strategy. Somebody forgot all about the potential of vaccination to control the epidemic in India.

    How long do you think it will take for this pandemic to become endemic and become irrelevant — from a public health perspective — to some extent?

    Unknown to many, we did enter the endemic phase for a full 10 weeks until it was broken by new mutants. For a few days in December 2020, all of January and February and more than a week in March 2021, India was in the endemic phase, with the daily average of cases not exceeding 20,000.

    Once Phase 2 is over, we will again reach endemic phase — by last quarter of June is my “intelligent guess”. Even in the endemic phase, old persons and those with co-morbidity, cancers, chronic kidney disease, pregnancy etc. will be vulnerable to Covid-related problems. At least in them, Covid should be prevented by vaccination. 

    ALSO WATCH | Covid double mutant B1617, a variant of concern: Centre

  • Jharkhand journalists to get COVID vaccine on priority

    Express News Service
    RANCHI: Journalists in Jharkhand will be administered the COVID-19 vaccine on priority basis. In a letter issued to all deputy commissioners by the National Health Mission Director, they have been directed to get all journalists vaccinated so that they fulfill their responsibilities ‘fearlessly’.

    “Since journalists belonging to the print and electronic media have to do extensive fieldwork for collection and publication of news, they need to be immunised in a proper way. Therefore, it is required to get them vaccinated on priority basis,” the letter stated. 

    Journalists in the state as well as political leaders cutting across party lines have been demanding that the former be declared as frontline workers and must get the vaccine at the earliest. 

  • Four lakh COVID-19 vaccinations for 18-44 age group in three days; highest in Gujarat

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Covid-19 vaccination for 18-44 age group which started on Saturday has seen a little over 4 lakh jabs administered to people in the category across 12 states in the first three days.

    Over the last 24 hours, 2.15 lakh beneficiaries in the age group got the shots.

    Gujarat, which is by far ahead of all other states in managing to providing vaccine to the younger lot, has seen 1,08,188 or nearly 25 % of all vaccinations so far for this age group, followed by Rajasthan (75,817) and Maharashtra (73,455).

    The only other state where more than 50,000 people in the category have got the shot, is Haryana.

    In the country, vaccination for all adult population has started from May 1 under the Centre’s liberalised and decentralised policy amid crippling shortage of vaccines due to which even the prioritised groups are struggling to secure shots for themselves.

    Not surprisingly, over the last 24 hours, only 16. 5 lakh vaccine doses were given out, taking the total doses administered to 15.88 crore.

    Experts have pointed out that the government needs to aggressively carry out the vaccination drive, which started in phases since mid-January, to effectively control the raging pandemic.

    On Monday, the government however said that it has placed fresh orders last weeks for 11 crore doses of covishield and 5 crore doses of Covaxin, expected to be delivered from May through July even though Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are yet to deliver their first orders fully.

    Experts on the other hand have expressed worry over the decline in daily vaccinations as the 7-day average jabs was only 22 million compared to 37 million 4 weeks back at its peak, marking a 40% decline in average daily vaccinations.

    So far, only about 3% of eligible adults in India got 2 doses each while less than 13.5 % population has received a single dose.