- The anti-Covid vaccination alone is unable to thwart the fresh wave of the infection in several European and other countries going by the surge witnessed from the region. Some countries like Germany and France are in the grip of fourth and fifth waves severely undermining the efforts of the government authorities to give a fillip to the stuttering economy. It is amply clear that the dreaded virus is not going anywhere soon despite several vaccines available to reduce the severity of the infection. It is worrying that even some of the countries where around 70% of the population is fully vaccinated are in the grip of wave after wave of the virus spreading menacingly stifling the people no end.
PC: Leo Kelion
- There is an obvious message for India too here. The entire country is almost back to functioning at pre-pandemic levels. The citizens appear to be complacent what with covid appropriate behavior being willfully neglected even after concerted efforts to adhere to the time-tested protocols. On its part, the government authorities must focus on upping disease surveillance and expediting vaccination. The vaccination coverage in the country is not achieving much or on expected lines as just 30% of Indians are fully vaccinated. Moreover, decisions on child immunization as well as booster shots for 2.5 crore senior citizens and healthcare workers who received second doses over six months ago are still awaiting further instructions.
- Since the reopening of educational institutions has triggered a few Covid clusters around the country, the evidence so available suggests that the virus is transmitting even when unable to wreak much damage as of now. The testing numbers too have come down drastically signifying diversion of focus as was witnessed not so long ago. Further, the national serosurvey in July had revealed Covid antibodies in 67% of the population even when single-dose coverage was just 28%. Subsequent serosurveys in Delhi, Kerala, and Haryana had revealed over 90%, 80%, and 70% seropositivity respectively in the general population. Statistics apart, make no mistake, only speedy universal full vaccination is capable of mitigating infection risks.
PC: Dr. Ramya Dwivedi
- Even though high seroprevalence is a comforting prospect but in a situation where immunity is waning, India’s propensity for rapid infection transmission, as evident during the devastating Delta second wave in April-June, poses a nightmarish scenario to be avoided at all costs. We cannot afford another wave or the accompanying restrictions which will prove to be a death knell for the country at large. Two aspects must be seriously and expeditiously considered by the government authorities. One, the expert group on Covid vaccine administration must debate the merits of rolling out booster doses in the private sector for those receiving medical advice to take the third dose.
- This will allow governments to steadfastly focus on the community medicine aspect of accelerating first and second doses. Another aspect is to speed up the process of administering crores of doses lying unused as also jabbing nearly 10 crore people overdue for their second doses on a war footing. There are warning signs visible but not enough to warrant immediate attention and action. However, if we fail to push the envelope now, we might be staring at an avoidable situation as and when the next virus wave makes its presence felt yet again.
