BS Number Wise: How efficient is India's Covid-19 vaccination programme?

India averages 109 vaccinations per site and the UK 126. It has fully vaccinated only 6 per cent of its population, as against 53 per cent in the UK

India administered more than 2.2 million vaccines for Covid-19 on July 21, far less than 9 million doses it had administered on June 21. However, the country has been averaging 4.5 million vaccinations daily. The government says it has been vaccinating nearly 70 million people every fortnight—more than the UK’s entire population—but critics argue the coverage (percentage of population vaccinated) is limited.

Hence, there are two counteracting arguments about India’s vaccination strategy.

Its campaign is one of the largest in the world, having administered 415 million vaccines since January. The US, which started vaccinations in December, has administered 338 million doses. China, the only country to have done better, has administered 1.48 billion doses.

 

In terms of daily vaccinations as well, India’s record is phenomenal. Until two months ago, India and the US were on a par on daily vaccinations, but since then India has pulled away. China has performed better, averaging 11 million vaccinations daily.

However, in terms of coverage, India has administered the first dose to 23.9 per cent of its total population and only 6.3 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

In contrast, over two-thirds of the population in the UK has received its first dose and over half is fully vaccinated. In the US, 56 per cent of the population has got the first dose and 48 per cent is fully vaccinated.

 

As India prepares for the third wave of Covid-19 infections, it needs a larger share of its population vaccinated.

Is India vaccinating fewer people than other countries? A Business Standard analysis shows that the average vaccination per site in India has been 109 in July. The highest per-site vaccination was 135 on July 3, when 6.6 million doses were administered across 48,778 sites. In the UK, the average vaccination per site in July has been 126. The average vaccination per site in the UK at its peak was over 200 per site.

 

Vaccinations depend on productivity, but they are also a function of availability and management: the US and the UK inked deals with vaccine manufacturers much before India.

A comparison of sites shows that the UK and India are not too different in terms of management, i.e., site availability per 100,000 people. In the UK, 2.8 sites are available for every 100,000 people, whereas in India 2.6 sites are available.

The productivity of Indian healthcare workers has been higher than most other countries. There are three doctors to cater to 1,000 people in OECD countries. In rural India, one doctor sees more than 10,000 people. The OECD bloc has 9 nurses per 1,000 patients: India has only 2.74 nurses per 1,000. The ratio of nurses to ventilators and ICU beds has been 1:2 and 1:3 respectively, even though the norms prescribe a ratio of 1:1 for ventilators and 1:2 for ICU beds.

Are vaccine availability and administration to blame for India’s low vaccination?