Vaccination key to battling pandemic: MMS

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday wrote to incumbent Narendra Modi on the Covid-19 crisis, stressing ramping up vaccination was the key to battling the pandemic, and mooted steps to boost supply including invoking compulsory licensing provisions as in case of HIV/AIDS drugs.

In a letter to the PM, the veteran Congress leader said one must not look at absolute numbers but the total percentage of the population that has been vaccinated.

“The key to our fight against Covid-19 must be ramping up the vaccination effort. We must resist the temptation to look at the absolute numbers being vaccinated, and focus instead on the percentage of the population vaccinated,” he said in his letter. Noting India currently has vaccinated only a small fraction of its population, Singh said he is certain that with the right policy design, “we can do much better and very quickly".

“There are many things we must do to fight the epidemic but a big part of this effort must be ramping up the vaccination programme," he said, making suggestions.

The former PM suggested states should be given some flexibility to define categories of frontline workers who can be vaccinated even if they are below 45 years.

Currently, people above 45 years of age are eligible for vaccination.

He said some states may want to designate school teachers, bus, three-wheeler and taxi drivers, municipal and panchayat staff, and possibly lawyers who have to attend courts as frontline workers, and they can then be vaccinated even if they are below 45 years.

Singh said the Centre should publicise vaccine dose orders placed and accepted for delivery over the next six months. The government should indicate how vaccine supplies are to be distributed to states.

"If we want to vaccinate a target number in this period, we should place enough orders in advance so that producers can adhere to an agreed schedule of supply," he said.

Singh said the govt must indicate how this expected vaccine supply will be distributed across states based on a transparent formula. He suggested the Centre could retain 10% for distribution based on emergency needs, and states must have a clear signal of likely availability so they can plan rollout.