Centre to provide free jabs for all adults: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that the Union government was taking back the responsibility for procuring vaccines and distributing them to states, accepting a growing chorus of demands from the states, and amidst increasing concerns that supply shortages and the insistence of foreign vaccine makers that they would only deal with the Union government could derail India’s vaccine drive.

The Union government will continue to allow private hospitals to buy up to 25% of vaccines made in India, although it has capped the service charge they can levy on these at ₹150 a dose. The details of India’s new vaccine policy will be worked out in consultation with the states in the next two weeks, and it will be launched on June 21, Modi added.

The Union government will bear the cost of vaccinating everyone over the age of 18 years (the population currently eligible for vaccines), he said.

In his address to the nation,

Modi also defended his government’s vaccine policy, pointing out that it was “decentralised” only in response to demands from many states that they be allowed to manage the vaccine drive, and buy directly from both Indian and foreign manufacturers. The Centre, therefore, allowed this from May 1.

The Prime Minister’s speech comes ahead of a hearing in the Supreme Court on the Covid-19 situation and the state of vaccination

in the country. In its previous hearing, the apex court said the Union government’s coronavirus vaccination policy that put the onus of giving doses to adults in the below-45 years age group entirely on states and private hospitals was “prima facie arbitrary and irrational”.

In phases till then, the Union government had managed the vaccine drive for health care workers, frontline workers, people over the age of 60 years, and those over the age of 45 years but with co-morbid conditions that made them more vulnerable to Covid-19. But in response to the demand from the states, it decided to allow states to offer vaccinations to all starting May 1.

India bore the brunt of the second wave in April and May – it saw a total of 15.95 million infections, or 56% of all infections it has seen to date, in the two months, and 168,927 deaths,

or 49% of the deaths to Covid-19 – and this, combined with the supply situation, made the vaccine drive chaotic.

States also found it impossible to deal with foreign manufacturers, many of whom wanted the Union government to provide them protection from lawsuits for adverse events (discussions on this are on). In just a few weeks, the PM said, states came out and said the old system was better.

India has already administered in excess of 230 million doses, Modi said, and its vaccine drive is among the fastest in the world, but the new policy will make it faster.

To be sure, apart from the unwillingness of foreign companies such as Pfizer and Moderna to deal with the states, and their inability to get anywhere with their global tenders, the states were significantly hampered by the sheer lack of supply.

With demand increasing manifold suddenly – there are 600 million Indians between the ages of 18 and 45 years who became eligible for vaccines on May 1 – and supplies not keeping pace, this was always going to be a problem.

The situation has improved in June, with the government anticipating supplies of at least 120 million doses, and the number is expected to increase even more in coming months.

The Union government has said that 2.16 billion vaccines will be available in India between August and December, but this number includes aggressive estimates for the production of some existing vaccines, and some vaccines that are still in different stages of development and testing.

India has approved three vaccines (one locally developed, a second made under licence, and a third imported as well as locally made by at least half a dozen companies under licence) and most experts are convinced that vaccine supply will improve in coming months, especially with the local production of Sputnik V, which India is currently importing.

The Prime Minister referred to this in his speech and said there were seven vaccines in various stages of development and three in final trials, including a nasal vaccine, which, if approved, would significantly speed up the pace of vaccinations. Among the vaccines in late stage trials is one developed by Biological E, for which India has already placed an advance order for 300 million doses. Two vaccines are also being tested on children, the PM said.

The government has already told the Supreme Court that it plans to vaccinate all eligible Indians by the end of this year.

Responding to criticism of India’s vaccine strategy, Modi said that the government set up a vaccine task force as far back as April 2020, supported vaccine makers through trials and through funding, and planned a phased delivery of vaccines starting with healthcare workers, something that helped them work without fear and serve people during the second wave.

Describing the coronavirus pandemic as a “once in a 100year” epidemic, the PM said he understood that many Indians had lost people to Covid-19, and that his sympathies were with them. The disease was “unprecedented in the modern world” but India fought it together, he added, “building hospitals, increasing ICU capacity, making ventilators, creating new health infrastructure…”.

And then, he said, when, during the second wave, the country saw the kind of demand for medical oxygen that it had never seen before, it sourced liquid oxygen and concentrators from all parts of the world, deploying its navy and air force, using trains to move oxygen tankers, and working on a manifold increase in oxygen manufacturing capacity.

At a time such as this, Modi added, “politicking” isn’t good. It is important that states focus on the task at hand, he said – vaccinating everyone, including the last person in line. Some people have been consistently spreading misinformation about vaccines, he added, leading to fears and hesitancy among people. Such people, he added, are “playing with the lives of innocents”.

The Union government has repeatedly targeted opposition politicians for their comments on vaccines and said this could lead to hesitancy.

Acknowledging the impact of the second wave, the PM said that a winner does not concede defeat when faced with a crisis. “I am confident we will win,” he said. “India will win.”