Covid vaccination in India: People in India are eagerly waiting for the World’s biggest Covid vaccination drive, scheduled to commence on January 16. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally launch the Covid vaccination programme, the beneficiaries have been advised to adhere to the norms. India has provided Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for homegrown Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institue of India’s version of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine Covishield following suggestions by a Subject Expert Committee set up by the Drugs Controller General of India.
Assuring that each the Covaxin and Covishield “have established their safety and immunogenicity through a well prescribed regulatory process”, the Government of India has procured 110 lakh doses of Covishield and 55 lakh doses of Covaxin. Covid vaccine roll out in India will be sequential with well being care workers will be on the major priority, followed by frontline workers and prioritized age groups. It ought to be noted that the price of vaccination for well being care workers and frontline workers will be borne by the central government.
The government of India has advised persons to acquire the comprehensive schedule of two doses irrespective of previous history of infection with COVID-19 as this will assistance in building a protective immune response against the illness. Vaccine receivers will will need a photo ID for the registration which will be verified at the vaccination web site. It is mandatory to carry the similar ID at the vaccination web site to get the vaccine. People ought to keep in mind that there will be no provision for on-the-spot COVID Vaccine registration at the session web-sites as only pre-registered COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries will be vaccinated as per their allotted date, time, and schedule.
The central government has talked about the 5 essential principles for COVID19 vaccination. These are – make certain people’s participation, use the practical experience of elections and universal immunization system, no compromise on scientific and regulatory norms, and no compromise of current healthcare services. Apart from persons, and the central and state governments, health-related authorities are also eagerly waiting for the watershed moment.
“The preparations for vaccine roll out in India are going on in full swing, with vaccine approvals given and impending transport from the manufacturer. The Government has in the meantime, organised dry runs that will help in ironing out many on-the-ground hitches as well what fire fighting will be needed in a real-time problem. Given that it is winter in India and the Oxford vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature of 2-8 °C, the beginning of vaccination is anticipated to be smooth,” Dr. Amitabha Ghosh, Senior Consultant-Internal Medicine, Columbia Asia Hospital, stated.
However, in a nation like India, operational difficulties such as crowd management can pose important challenges for the care providers administering the vaccine. Besides, informing the front line workers, who will be eligible for the initial roll out, we will need to educate all stakeholders concerning the efficacy and security of the vaccines. Vaccine centers will be equipped to manage any emergency fall out of vaccination with prepared access to medicines, gear like ambulances in the remote possibility of any reaction. Side effects like a sore arm or mild fever are anticipated with any vaccination but we do not anticipate any adverse reaction. So we advise persons to go ahead and register on the app as quickly as it is created out there and await your initial shot. But a warning, PLEASE CONTINUE WITH MASKS, HAND HYGIENE AND SOCIAL DISTANCING,” Dr. Ghosh stated.
“Vaccination in India is expected to start from January 16. We all know it’s a humongous exercise but good thing is that we are used to massive vaccination drive especially the part of our Indradhanush scheme. We also witnessed polio vaccination program, where millions of volunteers and healthcare workers used to vaccinate children on every polio Sunday. We do have the experience to that but we are looking forward to vaccinating about 300 million people by the end of August. It is a massive exercise, no doubt but it will be helped by our good network of healthcare providers. In the beginning, only two types of vaccines will be available in India. The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine, whereas, the Bharat Biotech vaccine is an inactivated virus vaccine. I would urge all to register themselves and get vaccinated as and when their turns come and the government communicates with you,” Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, Founder, and Director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, New Delhi stated.
“It has been announced that from January 16 onwards, the vaccination drive for COVID-19 will start all over India by the Prime Minister. It’s a great achievement. Nowhere it has happened in the history of the world that a vaccine was developed at such a fast speed. The vaccines look very promising and the side effects are not significant enough. So, we should get good results from the Covid vaccine, once the vaccination process starts. There are some questions raised that whether we have developed herd immunity as Indians and need vaccinations? It’s still not clear whether immunity is developed after a person gets infected because reinfections have also been seen with COVID-19. Vaccination is the only way through which we can protect ourselves from Covid-19,” Dr. P Venkata Krishnan, Senior Consultant- Internal Medicine, Paras Hospital stated.
The government has decided to do vaccination in a phased manner. Initially, the healthcare workers and these who are at the highest danger of contracting the infection will administer the vaccination initial followed by the elderly and other basic populations. India is major the course of action of vaccine improvement all more than the globe. It’s quickly going to grow to be the hub of the COVID vaccine for the whole globe. After finding the vaccination, it does not imply that we ought to right away get back to our typical life, quit wearing masks, start out socializing. The efficacy of the vaccination will be a bit questionable. Things will take time to come to normalcy but the worry of COVID-19 will be drastically lowered,” Dr. P Venkata Krishnan stated.