Covid 2021: A Specs Odyssey

Context: An analysis of the COVID vaccination framework in India.

Challenges in Vaccination:

• Gargantuan exercise: The size of the COVID drive will be roughly five times that of the robust inoculation programme under the universal immunisation programme for children.
• Huge logistics costs: While the December
• Storage constraints: Industry estimates peg the existing cold storage capacity at 400-500 million doses, while the number of doses required for the drive is about 1.6 billion.
• Power constraints: Steady power supply to ensure that the vaccines don’t lose their potency.
• Varying healthcare capacities across states: States like Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, for instance, may need more resources than others.

Way Forward:

• Financing the drive:
  • Government can finance vaccination drive through a cess on direct taxes and partly through borrowing.
  • Since states will ultimately implement the programme, the Centre can transfer funds to states either as grants or special long-term loans.
  • The allocation of funds needs to be done on the basis of specific needs of the vaccination drive, not on a pre-determined formula based on usual parameters.
• Augment capacity:
  • Number of vaccinator and support staff has to be ramped up sharply, drawing on the entire pool of healthcare and allied workers and need to be rigorously trained
  • Given capacity variation across states, medical personnel be moved from surplus to deficit states.
  • In rural areas, an isolated vaccination facility where infection risk is minimal needs to be built.
• No need to distribute the vaccine for free: Corporate sector (both public and private sector) employees and can be left out of the ambit of the ‘free vaccination’ programme.
  • Employees can either pay out of pocket for the vaccine, or their employers can fund it, and Private hospitals should be asked to inoculate their own staff.
• Rope in the healthcare and logistics private sector: For E.g. UP is considering the use of repurposed refrigerated vans from other industries to transport vaccines.

Conclusion: The ultimate success or failure of India’s Covid vaccination drive will depend on its ability to reach its villages.