Covid risks

Govt should revitalise the vaccination programme

The start of the traditional spring flu season in India has revealed a resurgence of Covid-19 cases with the number of fresh instances touching 1,070 on March 19, a statistic last seen in November last year. On Monday, the health ministry data revealed that India saw a single-day rise of 981 fresh Covid cases and four deaths, with active cases at 6,350. These numbers are the result of testing by patients suffering from flu-like symptoms to determine whether they have H3N2, a sub-type of an influenza strain that is doing the rounds, or the Covid virus. Given that people can be infected with Covid without displaying any symptoms, it is probable that the number of actual Covid cases is higher than what the official numbers show. As before, Kerala and Maharashtra appear to be the principal locus of infections, though Gujarat has also reported significant numbers. To be sure, as India approaches the third anniversary of the implementation of nationwide lockdown, 1,000-odd official cases of what appears to be the relatively mild variant of Covid does not translate into a national emergency. But the experiences of early 2020 and mid-2021 highlight the criticality of an early response of the public health system.
 

The Centre’s medical establishment appears to have learnt the lessons of those early experiences and is meeting to assess the emerging threat and discuss ways to constructively control the situation early. Obviously, lockdowns such as those of 2020 and 2021 would be unnecessary and out of the question as economic revival gains traction, not least because the population has gained a degree of immunity owing to a combination of the spread of the disease and vaccination. So far, the health ministry has issued guidelines advising against the use of antibiotics and steroids. Beyond that it is axiomatic that the Centre and state governments reinstate the old time-tested routines of intensive testing, compulsory masking in public spaces, vaccination, and expanded genome testing.

Since it is clear that Covid is still in action, vaccination remains the key. Given the proven role that vaccination has played in containing the Covid virus, the Centre and state governments together would do well to revive their vaccination programmes so that the most vulnerable cohorts of the population — the poor, the elderly, and those who work in high-contact industries such as construction, retail, hospitality, and so on — gain a greater degree of immunity. Though India has justifiably taken considerable pride in the success of its vaccination programme, the fact is that the immunity of large proportions of the population has worn off.

Though almost the entire population has taken one dose, and a large proportion has taken the second dose, the six-month coverage of those vaccines would have expired. But there has been a significant diminution in the numbers of those who have taken the third dose, which would have extended the duration of protection. To date, only 227 million people have taken the third dose. One of the reasons for this tapering was that the government ended its free-vaccine window for booster doses. At a time when health administrations in Europe and the US are dispensing the fourth and fifth doses, it will serve India well if it revitalises its vaccine programme so that more Indians can gain access to a third and possibly fourth dose.