- It is quite disconcerting to note what the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) CEO stated a few days back. The CEO has signalled that Covishield output will be cut by half with no new purchase orders forthcoming from the Government of India. As reports mention, the Centre had purchased 66 crore Covishield doses which have immensely contributed to helping the country’s health authorities to smoothly carry vaccination programme well into December. Needless to mention, the Government of India must make another large purchase order to ensure that supply for at least the next four months is assured.
PC: freepik
- We all know how the entire country was rendered paralyzed for want of an adequate supply of vaccines as the massive Covid second wave simply went about ravaging anyone coming along the way. The bitter experience of the period has made us learn an invaluable lesson about the importance of bulk orders and advance payments. Acting quickly, the Union Government lost no time in April to release Rs. 4,500 crore as advance payments to SII and Bharat Biotech, respectively. Looking back, with no advance payments or bulk vaccine pre-orders and the vaccination drive progressing at a slow pace without ambitious scaling-up targets, that decision at the time proved to be a much-needed incentive for SII and BB to increase production capacity.
- Mind you, the SII’s predicament is understandable as the long export ban imposed allowed foreign companies to corner global market share considerably and current stocks cannot be quickly diverted to foreign shores either. Moreover, the Indian market is not saturated too as another 58 crore doses are still needed to fully vaccinate all adults. Most worryingly, Covaxin continues to underperform despite unfulfilled assurances leaving Covishield as the only vaccine capable of doing the heavy lifting. Note that the 1 crore doses of ZyCov-D that the Government has ordered also pale before India’s average daily vaccination requirement of around 80 lakh doses.
PC: senivpetro
- On top of it, there is an increasing demand for administering booster doses to healthcare/frontline workers and adults over 45 years numbering 4.75 crores. To further buttress the claim, the Indian Medical Association has demanded a booster dose for healthcare workers, amid concerns that immunity may have dipped given their vaccination at the start of the drive-in January 2021. It also makes sense to consider reducing the prescribed gap between Covishield doses to accelerate second dosing. As we know, it was originally 4-6 weeks when healthcare workers and senior citizens were prioritized for jabs, then increased to 6-8 weeks, and is now pegged at 12-16 weeks.
- All the medical and science experts are of the considered opinion that there should be no shortcut to vaccine drive since new variants are constantly emerging. As such, issuing vaccine makers advance indication of supply requirements will do away with the uncertainty that a company like SII, which has admirably shouldered India’s vaccination campaign, now faces. Come to think of it, India is yet to commence vaccinating children below-18 years and as such, stocking up an adequate quantity of vaccines to face any eventualities should be the guiding force in the coming months. Neither laxity nor procrastination will help the cause though. The time to act and act fast is now.
