Vaccination is gaining pace while COVID-19 cases plummet; is it the calm before the storm?
Many parts of the country, including the Capital, have seen a steady fall in the COVID-19 daily caseload in the last few weeks. The respite came after a horrid second wave that claimed thousands of lives while many continue to struggle. Several developments surrounding the virus and vaccination have surfaced lately, the most recent being Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandviya’s tweet announcing that India has administered at least one dose of the vaccine to 75 crore citizens. The numbers are encouraging, but they did not come without a price. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO’s regional director, said while it took 85 days to administer the first 100 million doses, India reached 750 million doses from 650 million in just 13 days. Going by the current rate, India will be able to fully vaccinate about 43 per cent of its population by December end. According to the Health Ministry, all eligible people in even far-off places like Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep have received at least one dose. Kerala, too, saw a considerable sink in the daily log and reported 15,058 fresh cases and 99 deaths on Monday.
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, which is one of the three vaccines currently administered in India, is expected to receive the WHO’s nod of approval this week which would ease the international travel of Covaxin recipients. India, which was the largest vaccine exporter till April with over 66 million doses, has currently suspended export. The approval from the WHO is expected to facilitate exports as well. A few days ago, the Government stated that it had in August administered more vaccines than all the G7 countries combined, with more than 180 million doses. However, it does not justify the fact that only about 20 per cent of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated yet. On the other hand, the G7 countries have fully inoculated more than 50 per cent of their respective population. Comparing the two would be absurd. However, it is noteworthy that a significant portion of the overly hesitant tribal population of the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu has been partially or fully inoculated. A recent study by the US’s Centers for Disease Control observed that death risk increases 10 times in case of a non-vaccinated person, which is all the more reason to shun vaccine hesitancy or complacency and go for that jab right away.