Govt's target to vaccinate one billion people in 2021 'not possible': ICMR

Experts from the ICMRNational Institute of Malaria Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research on Wednesday slammed the government for poor planning of the homegrown vaccine production and deployment as a result of which India doesnt have enough vaccines to go aroundWhile there are plans to significantly ramp up production of the Covaxin and Covishield vaccines the target to vaccinate around one billion people may still not be reached this year the experts said in a commentary published in the online journal BMJ Global HealthOnly around 3 per cent of the population has been inoculated till nowThe experts urged the government to expedite the approval of foreign vaccines already deployed elsewhere around the globeAs any protection conferred by Covid19 vaccine is expected to take at least two weeks after both doses and with large demands India will require many more sources of vaccines in the coming days and weeks to stem the current uptick in infections it saidAlso Read Covid19 vaccination to be completed in India by December this year Prakash JavadekarFurther to expand coverage the government has allowed private hospitals to vaccinate which charge anything from 3 to 15 roughly Rs 220 to Rs 1098 meaning very few people can afford itThey urged the government to make vaccines against Coronavirus free for everyone in India which will not only boost uptake but also curb the death toll from the infectionOn differential pricing of vaccines between Centre and states the experts said it is likely to be detrimental to public health at this time of grave crisis in India creating inequitable distribution and potentially sparking public mistrustFor India to stem Covid19 the nation cannot allow any differential approach for its residentsThe governmentmandated preregistration via a mobile app to create a vaccination records infrastructure for adults is also not feasible as only around a third of people in rural areas have an internet connection the experts saidInstead a simple vaccination card may be a better option they suggestMoreover the funding pledged by the government is far from adequate the experts lamented saying this will be concerning in scenarios where a 3rd booster shot is required Hence India needs a corpus of funds for the above that covers all future eventualities of vaccine deployment it saidIndia may need to reset its vaccine strategies enhance the competence level of pandemic management and spur the bureaucratic machinery so that vaccine equity can be achieved in a very short span of time it notedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever