When India crossed the emblem of the administration 75 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses, Dr. VK Paul, member of Niti Aayog and head of the Covid Task Force, hailed the country’s vaccination campaign and said India was well on track to achieve full vaccination of the entire adult population by the end of the year.
However, he answered yes to the question of whether consistency was the key to this.
VK Paul said hesitating about vaccines is no longer a problem, but making sure vaccines reach everyone. There is “vaccine zeal,” he said.
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ON BOOSTER CANS
Dr. VK Paul also said that little data is available on boosters so far and that Covaxin is conducting a study to identify the need for them. “WHO didn’t say anything about the need either and for now we should focus on vaccinating everyone with two doses,” he said.
COVAXIN PERMIT FOR OUL UNTIL SEPTEMBER END
Dr. VK Paul said the data from Covaxin looked promising and that the vaccine could soon be approved for the Emergency Call List (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO). EUL is a method of streamlining the process by which new products can be approved and used in public health emergencies such as a pandemic. Sources within Bharat Biotech, the company that developed Covaxin, also said they expect approval by “the end of the month” and that “all inquiries have been answered”.
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CHILDREN AND THIRD WAVE
Paul also said it was difficult to predict a third wave, but past trends have shown an increase in the cases after the holiday season. “Earlier it was seen that the cases after parties, get-togethers during the Christmas season, the virus loves parties has increased. We have to push it,” he said.
He added that various mathematical projections were saying that there would be a third wave, but there was no mutation of the delta variant that would contribute to a third wave. “AY.4 [a sublineage of the Delta variants] is a mutation, but we don’t think it’s any more deadly than Delta, “he said.
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He also refuted statements made in the past about India’s poor health care Infrastructure for childrensaid the government was preparing for the same.
He also supported the reopening of schools for children in areas with low infection rates and said that one of the boxes “High vaccination rates for teachers” was ticked.
“Children need to be around vaccinated adults, and that’s the best antidote,” he said.
He added that in states like Kerala, more children are affected, but mortality is lower than last year. This can also be observed in other states, he said. “Children move more and there are more tests and that could be one of the reasons that more cases are diagnosed in children,” he said.
PFIZER, MODERN
VK Paul said the conversation was ongoing and that indemnity and other contractual obligations are delaying the entry of these vaccines into the market. He refused to elaborate on this.
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