Laser view
What India needs is a concerted vaccination campaign in its fight against COVID-19
The country is being pulled in as many directions as there are authorities and agencies involved in managing the COVID-19 situation. Individually, they all make sense but collectively they are mind-boggling. Here are some developments in the last one week. The first is a laudable achievement by Himachal Pradesh which became the first State in India to give the first dose of the pandemic vaccine to 100 per cent of its adult population. What is more, the State claims it is well on its way to giving the second jab to the same population by November-end. The second one is also a record achievement: One crore doses in the country in a day on August 27. Then comes the decision by some States that schools will reopen on September 1. The Telangana High Court, however, puts a stay on the Government order. Maharashtra is yet to formalise the ban on public gatherings during Ganesh Puja. Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram join Kerala in registering a spurt, even though small, in fresh cases. And Karnataka mandates a seven-day quarantine for people coming in from Kerala. Amid this hustle and bustle, the Union Government is determined to complete the task of giving the first dose to the adult population in the country by the end of October. A dozen States, which are in the lead in administering doses, expect to complete the first dose task by September end.
So much is happening on the reopening and vaccination front but it is yet to gel into a seamless national initiative. The States and the Centre, however, appear to be on the same page about the risk of the forthcoming festival season becoming a superspreader, ringing in the third wave of the pandemic. The helplessness in making people follow the safety protocols shows in the urgency to see that as many people as possible get the first dose before festival time. The other worry for the Government is that even if vaccine supplies are aplenty, it is difficult to speed up the process of giving the second dose to the population because Covishield that accounts for over 80 per cent of the jabs to date has a long gap of 12 weeks or 84 days between doses. The Government is not considering reducing this gap. On the other hand, the Government can focus on completing the task of giving the second dose of Covaxin, which has a relatively smaller gap, at a faster pace. The decision of the Government to extend the restriction on foreign air travel till September end is welcome, considering a wave-like rise in new COVID-19 cases in the United States and Europe. The World Health Organisation has already warned of a high rate of deaths by December if people refuse to get vaccinated or continue to defy safety protocols. India is relatively in a safer situation and a seamless Centre-States coordination is necessary to keep it that way.
Course: The Pioneer
