Over 900m jabs administered nationwide

HEALTH MINISTER’S CLAIM LAID BARE BY WHITE PAPER ON HEALTHCARE ILLS

The cumulative Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country have crossed 900 million, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said yesterday.

The country-wide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started on February 2.

The next phase of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 from April 1.

Unversal campaign

The government then decided to expand the vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1.

Meanwhile, according to a white paper by FICCI-Elsevier released yesterday the pandemic has created unprecedented stress on healthcare infrastructure in India, leaving other infectious diseases largely unattended and raising their risk of outbreaks. Other than Covid, India has a high burden of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, which kills nearly one person in the country every minute.

The white paper by FICCI’s working group on infectious diseases and a team of experts from AIIMS Jodhpur, thus called for developing a concrete strategy to deal with other infections and their aftermath.

The paper revealed that the in detection, diagnosis and treatment may lead to nearly 20 per cent more deaths in adults due to tuberculosis during Covid-19.

It noted that the pandemic reversed the achievements which were gained in past years in terms of the decrease in the number of cases of HIV and the decrease in children and adolescents who will access treatment.

The paper recommends a dire need for the Indian healthcare ecosystem to focus on point-of-care solutions. This will bridge the gaps and strengthen healthcare professionals to tackle such epidemics and pandemics in the future.