- The Indian vaccination drive which was stuttering and meandering along for quite some time has picked up pace in the last few weeks. As assured by the Union Government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court, the administering of jabs appears to be on the right track to cover all eligible adults by December end. Hopefully, this target will be achieved by sustaining the momentum gained by consistently crossing the one crore doses per day in the days ahead. Incredibly, the vaccination drive touched an impressive 2.5 crore plus doses on Friday, 17th September 2021, incidentally the Prime Minister’s birthday. What a stupendous gift to the gentleman on his special day when the jabs crossed an incredible milestone.
PC: Maziar Motamedi
- A wide round of applause to all health workers, officials, doctors, nurses, and of course, citizens too for participating enthusiastically in the drive. With the possible third wave dangerously lurking around, achieving, and further maintaining the same zeal in administering the vaccine doses will go a long way in building a protective shield against the virus menace. A sense of accomplishment and a feel-good factor is bound to permeate the authorities for the significant achievements of late vis-à-vis administration of jabs, but there is still much distance left to traverse before the country can certainly heave a sigh of relief. Hence, any complacency and laxity at this stage should be avoided at all costs.
- There are few areas of concern that deserve a closer look and correction going forward. Indications about some states reaching their target of vaccinating all adults much before others is most welcome. The leaders are states like Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat have fully vaccinated over 30% and partially vaccinated at least 80% of adults. Also, other states like Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Haryana have crossed the 70% mark for partial vaccination and range between 24-30% in double-dosing adults. On the other hand, far more populous states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra are lagging considerably in their respective vaccine drives.
PC: Express Web Desk
- Of course, UP, Maharashtra, and MP are frontrunners in total doses administered. But such are the population numbers that they do not have the luxury of complacency. Note that UP and Bihar have single-dose over 50% of adults but delivered second doses to just 10-12%. Look at Kerala having administered 2.35 crore as against UP’s single-dose 7.6 crore people. However, UP is still left with another 7 crore residents to cover the first dose while Kerala is left with only 30 lakh eligible receivers. Further, UP has managed just over 1.6 crore second doses indicating how far the drive is lagging in comparison. Out-of-the-box thinking to ensure the jabs are administered to all eligible should be strategized on a war footing.
- It is understood that China claiming to have fully vaccinated 100 crore citizens sent vaccinators to farms rather than keep waiting for the rural folk to walk in at vaxing facilities to receive a jab. The Indian population and poor residing in rural areas is huge and hence, making every effort to reach out to them should be put into action forthwith. Millions cannot skip a workday or cannot afford to travel to vaccination sites. Endeavoring to reach out to these millions at their doorsteps or workplaces will be par for the course move to beat the deadline. Any moves supplementing the efforts of inoculation should be initiated.
