A year ago, India embarked on the challenging journey of vaccinating its massive 1.38 billion population against Covid-19.
In the year since the country’s vaccination campaign began, 90 percent of the eligible population have received their first dose and 60 percent have also received their second dose. Additionally, Caution doses, commonly known as boosters Shots are now being administered to front-line workers and vulnerable people over the age of 60.
A lot has happened since the first dose of vaccine was administered on January 16, 2021. The country has battled both vaccine hesitancy and vaccine shortages to reach the current plateau in vaccine demand. “The vaccination campaign was a success because there was very little vaccination hesitation compared to the rest of the world,” said Dr. Monica Mahajan, director of internal medicine at Max Healthcare.
Here is a look back at the highlights of the “biggest vaccination campaign in the world”.
HOW MANY DOSES WERE GIVEN?
More than 156 million vaccine doses have been administered in India as part of the national vaccination campaign. Of these, more than 90 million are given as first doses, 65 million as second doses and 42 million as “precautionary” doses.
India’s cumulative immunization coverage hits a milestone of 156 crore
More than 57,000 vaccine doses had been administered as of 7pm todayhttps://t.co/5Up0q2tBHb pic.twitter.com/bdjdi4e1P7
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January 15, 2022
DRIVING PHASES OF VACCINATION
The Indian vaccination campaign was carried out in phases.
January 16, 2021: The vaccination campaign for frontline and healthcare workers has begun
March 1, 2021: The vaccination campaign started for people over 60 years of age and people with comorbidities in the 45-60 age group
April 1, 2021: Anyone over the age of 45 was eligible for a Covid vaccination
May 1, 2021: All adults (18+) were eligible for a Covid vaccination
November 2021: The government launched a Har Ghar Dastak (door-to-door) vaccination campaign to achieve 100 percent first-dose coverage
January 3, 2022: Teenagers (15-18 years) started the Covid-19 vaccination
January 10, 2022: Precautionary dosing began for frontline workers and vulnerable individuals over the age of 60
VACCINES AUTHORIZED IN INDIA
Eight emergency COVID-19 vaccines were approved in India last year. These are Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D, Serum Institute of India’s Covovax, and Biological E’s Corbevax.
However, Covishield and the domestically developed Covaxin have been the backbone of India’s vaccination campaign. While Sputnik V failed to launch in India, ZyCoV-D has not yet been launched. Meanwhile, Moderna has been unable to enter the Indian market as no deal has been reached yet.
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin faced manufacturing challenges, facilities such as biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories were upgraded with government support. Currently, Covaxin is the only vaccine given to children.
In November 2021 the The World Health Organization has published an emergency list for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, making it the eighth vaccine in the world to receive global health authority approval.
CHALLENGES
India’s vaccination campaign has not progressed without its fair share of hurdles along the way. The government has been criticized for a delay in ordering vaccines.
“We should have booked our vaccines in June 2020 when the first vaccine candidates were ready and field trials began. This would have helped us gain many months,” said Professor Dileep Mavalankar, Director at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.
Additionally, the country’s decision to export vaccines to other countries caused anger, especially as India was hit by the devastating second wave. the initiative called Vaccine Maitri, was temporarily suspended in April 2021. Critics claimed Vaccine Maitri was an “image-building exercise” for the prime minister.
As India faces a third wave of Covid-19 led by the Omicron variant, the vaccine offensive will continue to play a crucial role in the fight against the pandemic. “It is because of the people of India who are getting vaccinated that even during this severe wave of the pandemic, we are seeing tiny deaths and less hospitality,” said Dr. Vikramjeet Singh, Senior Advisor at Aakash Healthcare in Delhi.
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