- The Union Government has made a wise decision in its drive to vaccinate. In changing the vaccination strategy whilst shifting gears, the offering of greater choice to undertake immunization by involving more private sector participation will reach out far and wider. Announcing the next phase of the drive, senior citizens and those with comorbidities will be receiving shots from 01st March 2021 at 20,000 private vaccination centers with a reported price cap of Rupees 400 is a huge leap of faith for the envisaged vaccination campaign itself. To complement the drive, the Government should also undertake an aggressive information campaign to dispel apprehensions surrounding the drive.
PC: modern healthcare
- The statistics released by the authorities after 40 days of vaccination drive present an abysmal picture where mere 1.23 crore vaccine doses could be dispensed against a target of 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers. With the addition of new beneficiary categories, the challenge now is to ensure planned vaccination sites will boost capacity utilization which is sorely lacking in reaching the intended targets. In hindsight, the Government should have consulted more private healthcare officials before formulating strategies to undertake a mammoth vaccination drive aimed at covering the vulnerable and essential category of workers right from the first phase.
- The majority of the countrymen prefer visiting private healthcare facilities rather than frequenting public facilities. Therefore, having their choice of the private service provider will not only boost confidence to receive vaccination amidst uncertainty and apprehensions but also will provide a fillip to the drive to forge ahead as intended. Simplification of the process should take precedence from now on as the patchy performance of the Co-Win app is hindering the drive considerably. Complaints galore vis-à-vis troublesome pre-registration requirements, misfiring alerts, missing names, unyielding centralization deciding beneficiaries when and where to turn up for jabs is proving to be cumbersome.
PC: Ted S. Warren
- Adopting simple procedures like Aadhaar based offline data-keeping would speed up the vaccination drive manifolds. Relying too much on the non-functioning app defeats the purpose of extending coverage to nook and corner. Inflexibility should pave way for a flexible approach to ensure capacity utilization is optimized by allowing other adult age groups to take the shot as well. As envisaged, the capacity utilization should yield deliverance of 30 lakh vaccine doses daily on the back of 30,000 sites planned for the purpose. Also, the most heartening aspect to note is the bouquet of vaccines is growing bigger by the day. This should be advantageously utilized.
- Another matter deserving significant attention is for the Government to ensure price caps do not drag down capacity expansion, welcome innovations, and our stronghold of local manufacturing capacities. As the market functions on the premise of demand and supply based on competition, the economies of scales in the form of more vaccines should also ensure prices settle down at the most affordable rates. Whatever strategies or policy decisions, reaching out to the maximum population with the jabs should be the focus area for any avoidable delay would jeopardize the entire exercise rendering the task of inoculation more challenging.
