India Coronavirus Dispatch: Over 28,000 Delhi teachers on Covid duty

Robust logistics key for success of rollout, why side effects to vaccines are normal, what influenced Covaxin nod-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Robust logistics, boosting personnel strength key for vaccination success: Expert

As the country of over 1.3 billion people has begun a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme, managing the logistics and training the workers who will be closely involved in the roll-out remains a critical and daunting task, writes Praveen Pardeshi, a former commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

While developed countries like France and Germany are struggling to speed up the rollout, Israel has managed to inoculate 2 million people already, or 20 per cent of its population. Two factors central to Israel's success so far—ample access to shots, robust logistics and supply chain—have been put in place by India, writes Pardeshi, who served as BMC's commissioner during the early months of the pandemic in Mumbai until May 2020.

Mobilising staff from other sectors to boost personnel strength available to carry out the vaccination was a key factor to Israel's success. Following the newly amended labour laws, India can employ large numbers of educated rural young who are equipped with basic digital training. Nursing students, midwives in training, and retired army and defence services personnel in villages can also be tapped, Pardeshi writes. Read more here

Delhi's teachers on Covid-19 duty; some without PPE or pay

Over 28,000 teachers in New Delhi were deployed to carry out Covid-related duties in 2020 of which at least 35 have died and hundreds have fallen ill, according to a report in CNN.

Many teachers were provided with little to no training and are compelled to juggle their teaching duties with those of Covid-19. Teachers under the ambit of municipal corporations said they weren't equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) and their regular salaries haven't been paid for months. The Delhi Disaster Management Act can be used to threaten teachers with action for not reporting for their assignments. The first orders under the act were made in March last year, the report said. Read more here

Allergy-like reactions to Covid vaccines an 'expected effect': Expert

There have been many reports of adverse events since India began inoculating its population from Saturday but this is an “expected effect” of any immunisation vaccine, a report in The Wire said.

There have been reports of minor side effects across the country. Some complained of mild fever, body ache and nausea – although none of them have devolved to anything worse, Dr Akshay Baheti, a radiologist at the Tata Memorial Hospital, told The Wire. Getting fever, headache and nausea after vaccination is normal. It only means that the antibody has "landed well" and the body is responding to it, according to Baheti. Fixating on the "side effects" without examining the cause could needlessly discourage people from getting the shots, the report said. Read more here

OPINION: 'Unclear' who influenced expert panel that greenlighted Covaxin

Amid the controversy swirling around the emergency authorisation given to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin as it is yet to complete Phase 3 trials, it is unclear who was responsible for influencing the expert committee to give the nod, veteran journalist Coomi Kapoor said in an opinion piece for the Indian Express.

Bharat Biotech was earlier asked to submit additional research data before getting the approval, according to minutes of the expert committee meeting. Within a day, the panel met again to greenlight the vaccine. While the vaccine maker has the Prime Minister's blessings, the move seems to have stemmed in part due to veteran politician and Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy's tweet that an Indian product was being given step-motherly treatment and was not in line with RSS’s and Modi’s 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' campaign, Kapoor said. Read more here

OPINION: The blessing of the pandemic

If the Covid-19 pandemic has brought one blessing, it is that it has compelled the Modi government to take the poor state of public health seriously, veteran journalist Tavleen Singh said in an opinion piece for The Indian Express. The pandemic has made us notice that most government hospitals lack basic facilities like modern systems to get rid of medical waste. It is no longer acceptable that India should have the best private hospitals in the world and the very worst, Singh said. Read more here