Urge people to use private channel for vaccines: Paul
Says nation not safe as second wave isn’t over yet, cases may explode once more
The Centre on Friday laid emphasis on “optimum” utilisation of vaccines in the private sector. V K Paul, member (health) of NITI Aayog, said vaccine availability has increased thanks to the “hand-holding” of manufacturers, and that there will be continued improvement.
Responding to a query on shortage of vaccines in cities such as Delhi, where people are finding it difficult to get the second dose of Covaxin, Paul said: “Vaccines in the private sector should be utilised optimally. We should encourage and help people take vaccines through the private channel.”
He added that overall distribution of vaccines is being done systematically, in accordance with availability from the manufacturer’s end. This “visibility”, pertaining to the number of doses that are expected in the coming days, is shared with state governments. “As we move forward, there will be more vaccine availability, and that would ease things a bit,” Paul said.
Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Ministry of Health, said that the Centre has been working closely with vaccine manufacturers to ensure that production capacities are increased. “We have been able to transition from 200,000 doses to 4.1 million doses administered per day. We have ensured that manufacturers increase capacity,” he said.
Agarwal added that the management of vaccine logistics has to be done with a “just in time” approach. He said this needs “well-calibrated” planning — from identifying availability of the number of doses with each manufacturer at a given time, to testing and delivering these batches to remote parts of the country.
“States also have to do cutting-edge planning for vaccination drives. Once one knows about the quantity of vaccines that will be made available about 15 days beforehand, they would need to engage with the local community and vaccination centres at the field level.
They would also need to ensure that whatever is provided by the Centre is smoothly made available to the people,” Agarwal said. The health ministry said daily vaccination rates have picked up significantly, citing an increase in the number of doses administered, from 235,000 a day in January to 4.16 million a day in July. Of the 119.7 million doses given in June, 52.6 million doses were given between June 21 and 30. The average daily doses during that period rose to 5.25 million a day.
Ministry cautions against crowding in tourist places
In what people are terming “revenge travel”, many are flocking to popular tourist spots in the hills. The Centre has cautioned against compromising social distancing norms. On Friday, the Ministry of Health drew upon examples from other countries such as the UK and Russia, where the Euro Cup football tournament has seen thousands of spectators thronging the stadiums, and highlighted how Covid-19 cases have started rising in these nations. It gave examples of countries such as Indonesia, South Korea, and Bangladesh, which have started tightening norms again as cases start to rise. A video showing hundreds of tourists without masks at a popular spot in Mussoorie has been trending on social media this week. The ministry showed the video during the presser, asking: “Is it not an open invitation for Covid-19 to infect us?” Paul and Agarwal reiterated that India still has a chance of checking the spread of the virus. Local authorities at tourist spots need to exercise caution and restraint, they added. “Caseload of around 35,000-40,000 daily is about one-third of the peak during the first wave. The second wave is not yet over, the war is not over…the nation is not safe. We have seen this in the past, there were predominant localised infections and then that exploded,” Paul cautioned.
The baseline of daily cases would be something below 10,000 cases daily, which lasts for three weeks at least, he added. “The rate of decline of the number of cases is slow, and if we do not make concerted efforts to control the virus, the virus may have an upper hand over us,” Paul cautioned.