India Coronavirus Dispatch: Airlines to play key role in reaching vaccines

Students stressed out over uncertain future, the road to mass vaccination, and 1 in 5 families may attend weddings despite Covid-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Airlines face ‘mission of the century’ in shipping Covid vaccines

Laid low by a Covid-19 outbreak that’s decimated passenger demand, airlines will be the workhorses of the attempt to eradicate it, hauling billions of vials to every corner of the globe. It’s an unprecedented task, made more difficult by the carriers’ diminished state after culling jobs, routes and aircraft to survive a crisis that’s reduced air traffic globally by an estimated 61% this year. International Air Transport Association, the industry’s chief lobby, estimates that the equivalent of 8,000 loads in a 110-ton capacity Boeing 747 freighter will be needed for the airlift, which will take two years to supply some 14 billion doses, or almost two for every man, woman and child on Earth. Read more here

India will soon have a working vaccine. We must start now to make it work for all

Various drugmakers have come out with experimental vaccines with efficacies ranging from 70% to 95%. The task now for India is to convert these efficacious vaccines into an effective immunisation programme. So far, we have had some news reports regarding the price – the Oxford vaccine is expected to cost Rs 1,000, for example – and about priority groups, but we shouldn’t underestimate the scale of the task ahead. One question we must tackle head-on and early is whether immunisation will be available for free to all, as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has promised in Bihar state, if it will be pay-per-use or if it will be a combination of the two. Read more here

Covid has left students with uncertain future

Four in every five children reported facing obstacles to learning amid the pandemic, and three in four said they were stressed because of an uncertain future, ambiguity over going back to school, and loss of family livelihoods, according to a report by Save the Children titled 'A Generation at Stake: Protecting India’s Children from the impact of Covid-19', released on Friday. The report polled parents and children from 46 countries including India, where 1,598 parents and 989 children between ages 11 and 17 years from 11 states and two Union Territories (Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir) were surveyed to identify their needs to help fill the gaps. The states included Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, and Telangana. Read more here

The road to mass vaccination against Covid-19

Once a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available in India, how does the government go about immunising the population? Which groups should get the vaccine first, and who should get it free? In an interview to Prabha Raghavan, India’s leading public health expert, Prof K Srinath Reddy, weighs in. Read more here

1 in 5 families likely to attend weddings & engagements this season despite Covid — survey

At least one in five families across the country have attended or will be attending weddings and engagements between November and December, a survey covering 239 districts has found. This despite states having capped the total number of people allowed in weddings and other mass gatherings to 50-150 people amid the surge in Covid-19 cases across the country. The survey — released Monday and conducted by the Delhi-based LocalCircles, a community social media platform — found that 38 per cent of people believe that the risk of Covid infection and of it spreading through weddings is “average, low or non-existent”. Read more here