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.