Vaccines may have helped cut Covid-19 deaths to one-third

NEW DELHI: Covid-19 vaccines may have helped cut the number of deaths due to pandemic to almost a third of what they would have otherwise been around the world, including by approximately 2.7 million to 5.3 million in India, as per a new projection set to be published in the Lancet journal on Friday.

The numbers are the first estimates of how many lives were potentially saved across the world due to vaccines, and how many more could have been had distribution been more equitable. The first vaccines delivered anywhere in the world to the public was in December 2020 and in the 12 months after that, 19.8 million out of a potential 31.4 million Covid-19 deaths were averted in 185 countries and territories the study said.

While a specific number for India was not available, a map part of the paper suggested India may have averted between 2.7 and 5.3 million deaths by administering the close to 1.3 billion doses of vaccines that were delivered till the first week of December, 2021.

A further 599,300 lives could have been saved worldwide if the World Health Organisation’s target of vaccinating 40% of the population in each country with two or more doses by 2021 end had been met, the study added.

“Our findings offer the most complete assessment to date of the remarkable global impact that vaccination has had on the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the almost 20 million deaths estimated to have been prevented in the first year after vaccines were introduced, almost 7.5 million deaths were prevented in countries covered by the COVID-19 Vaccine Access initiative (COVAX). This initiative was set up because it was clear early on that global vaccine equity would be the only way out of the pandemic. Our findings show that millions of lives have likely been saved by making vaccines available to people everywhere, regardless of their wealth.