Tardy vaccine drive

The irony is painful: India’s vaccination drive is floundering at a time when it should have been progressing at full throttle to fight the crippling second wave of the Covid pandemic. No less painful is the growing perception that the Centre has left the states to fend for themselves to meet their vaccine needs. Several of them, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, have opted for global tenders to procure vaccines. Punjab has decided to join the global COVAX alliance for sourcing the shots rather than banking on the Central government. It’s a classic case of gross mismanagement: a country which liberally provided vaccines to over 80 countries is now scrambling desperately for supplies, with the states forced to vie with each other to get the best prices in the international market.

In four months after the launch of its vaccination programme, India has managed to fully inoculate just 3 per cent of its citizens, while 10 per cent of the people have received one shot each. In stark contrast, the US and the UK have administered one dose to around half of their population, while about one-third of their citizens have been completely vaccinated. With the third wave seemingly inevitable, the grim situation may worsen in India as the vast majority might remain unprotected against the deadly virus.

The Centre has announced that over two billion doses would be made available by the year-end, enough to cover the entire population, and that the number could be raised to three billion by the first quarter of 2022. These distant targets have nothing comforting to offer as it’s the short-term requirements which merit serious attention and prompt action. The government has taken too long to reassure companies that it would provide ‘all possible assistance’ to them to manufacture vaccines in India. Major international players like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are still not on board. The longer the Centre takes to remove production bottlenecks and plug supply gaps, the weaker the vaccine lifeline will become. With India losing roughly three lives to Covid every minute, there’s not a moment to lose.

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