Advance planning for vaccines

Advance planning for vaccinating the vulnerable sections with a Covid-19 vaccine, which is still under trial and whose commercial release remains unknown, has been set in motion by the Centre. It is good. Instead of being caught napping, a firm plan based on sound medical advice ought to be ready as and when India can procure an adequate number of vaccines, which are most likely to be produced by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India both for export, as well as for domestic use. Additionally, a couple of pharma firms, notably, one based in Hyderabad, might chip in with their own vaccines should they get the manufacturing licence from the winning research lab(s). However, even the Centre has indicated that the most fervently awaited vaccine globally may not be ready for use until next July. By then, the pandemic, which began in Wuhan in December 2019, hopefully, would have waned, having run the course of a full weather cycle globally. As it is, the number of cases recorded last week in some hotspots were lower than those recorded the previous week. Admittedly, the virus was still strong in certain regions. But it is welcome that the Centre has issued guidelines for un-lockdown-V keeping in mind the potency of the pandemic, as well as the livelihood concerns of the people. Both the Centre and the states should undertake an intensive campaign to educate people to resume normal work by all means but with due elementary precautions, such as masks, social distancing, hand-washing, etc.