ADULTS ONLY, FROM MAY 1
Increasing public pressure on the government on account of non-availability of Covid-19 vaccines at many places prompted Prime Minister Modi on Monday to "liberalise" the Central control over the inoculation drive.
This ‘loosening up’ began with a declaration to vaccinate all above 18 from May 1 and allowing the manufacturers to sell half of the vaccines directly to the state governments and in the open market at a pre-declared price.
A Health Ministry announcement said the states are also empowered to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers and open up the vaccination to anybody above the age of 18. It said the Centre's free vaccination drive will continue for essential and priority population as also those above 45 years.
All stakeholders get flexibility to customise the local needs in the third phase of vaccination, covering aspects like pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of the vaccines, the ministry said.
The decisions meet the prime demands of the Congress, the main opposition party in Parliament, to administer the jab to all above 18 and give a free hand to the states to buy the vaccines directly from the manufacturers and decide their distribution as per local needs.
A Congress leader said the decisions were taken to escape the people's wrath over shortage of oxygen and essential medicines, resulting in a spurt in daily deaths.
The Prime Minister said the gover nment's goal is to ensure that maximum number of Indians get the vaccine in the shortest possible time. He said more sites are being opened to ramp up vaccine production.
People aged between 18 and 30 who have previously been naturally infected will be recruited and reexposed to the virus in a safe, controlled environment and paid around 5,000 pounds to be quarantined for 17 days at a hospital.
"Challenge studies tell us things that other studies cannot because, unlike natural infection, they are tightly controlled. When we re-infect these participants, we will know exactly how their immune system has reacted to the first Covid infection, exactly when the second infection occurs, and exactly how much virus they got," said Helen McShane, Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford and Chief Investigator on the study.
The study will take place in two phases with different participants in each phase. The virus used in the study will be the original strain from Wuhan, China. The participants will be quarantined in a specially designed hospital suite for a minimum of 17 days under the care of the research team.
They will undergo numerous medical tests including CT scans of the lungs and MRI scans of the heart. The risks to participants will be minimised by making sure that those who take part are completely fit and well and have completely recovered from their first infection with Covid, the researchers said. Any participants, recruited on a voluntar y basis, who develop any symptoms will be given medical treatment with the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment.
They will only be discharged from the quarantine unit when they are no longer infected and not at risk of infecting others. The full length of the study will be 12 months, including a minimum of eight followup appointments af ter discharge.