Seeking a COVID-19-free India

Dr. Dharmakanta Kumbhakar (The writer can be reached at drkdharmakanta@yahoo.com)

The year 2020 will be remembered as a dark year by everyone around the world for Covid-19 pandemic. The whole world fought a battle against Covid-19 in 2020. The world had no idea how to respond to an unknown deadly novel coronavirus. Globally, over 80 million people were infected across 218 countries and 1.78 million people lost the battle in 2020. India also recorded 1.02 crore confirmed Covid-19 cases of which 1.48 lakh died in 2020. Of course, by achieving 96.16% recovery rate and 1.45% fatality rate from Covid-19, India has showcased its resilience against the pandemic before the world. However, the threat of Covid-19 is not yet over and challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic may continue in 2021. Majority of the European countries are still getting severely affected. Globally 8,76,40,402 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 18,91,692 deaths have been reported till January 7, 2021. With 20,428 new Covid-19 cases and 227 deaths in the last 24 hours as per Union Health Ministry, India's overall tally stood at 1,03,96,212 and death toll touched 1,51,552 on January 7, 2021. Till the same date, 1,00,16,492 Covid-19 cases have recovered and there are 2,28,168 active cases in India. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state till date in India. Of course, India has recorded one of the lowest new cases per million population in the last seven days, while Brazil, Russia, France, Italy, the USA and the UK have much higher cases per million population reported in the last seven days. Moreover, confirmed cases of infection caused by the new strain of SARS-CoV-2, first detected in the UK, which is more contagious and severely infectious than the previous one, is also increasing in India. With 15 more people tested positive in the last 24 hours as per Union Health Ministry, the total number of cases infected with the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 stands at 73 in India till January 7, 2021.

Every Indian was waiting for a Covid-19 vaccine from the beginning of the pandemic. The hope of Indians for Covid-19 vaccination is going to be fulfilled very soon as the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) V.G. Somani approved two Covid-19 vaccines, Oxford-AstraZeneca's 'Covishield', developed by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' for restricted emergency use in India earlier on January 3. The DCGI granted the approval on the basis of recommendations by a Covid-19 Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). As per the DCGI both the vaccines are 110% safe and Covishield is 70.42% effective while Covaxin provides a robust immune response. On the efficacy of Covaxin, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh, and Samajbadi Party chief Alakesh Yadav had pointed out that Covaxin lacked efficacy data to show the vaccine's effectiveness before it was approved for emergency use. The DCGI gave permission for restricted use of both vaccines in emergency situations in public interest only as there should be more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains. The DCGI approval will pave the way for a massive inoculation drive in India which will intensify and strengthen India's fight against the ongoing pandemic. Though the efficacy of both the vaccines isn't too high, we can expect that both the vaccines will bring Covid-19 under control in India in 2021 and will accelerate the road to a Covid-19-free India.

The Central Government has already planned for the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in India. The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on January 2, 2021 said that nearly 30 crore prioritised beneficiaries will be vaccinated free across the country in the first phase of the drive. It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers along with two crore frontline and essential workers, and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with comorbidities.

As India gears up to launch the world's largest immunisation drive against Covid-19 in India, almost all the State and Union Territory (UT) governments conducted a dry run of the vaccine on January 2, 2021 at various government medical colleges, hospitals, medical centres and the community health centres including many in remote corners of the country to assess their ability and readiness to administer Covid-19 vaccine shots to millions of people. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had directed earlier to conduct the dry run by all the Sates and UTs on January 2, 2021 to assess operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application (an online platform to upload the data of the beneficiaries for monitoring the delivery of the vaccine) in field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation, and to identify the challenges as well as guide the way forward prior to the actual drive of Covid-19 vaccination. The objective of the dry run was to equip the administration in management of vaccine supply, storage and logistics, and to give confidence to the programme manager at various levels. Few important focuses of the dry run was on management of any possible adverse events following immunization, adherence and management of infection-control practices at the vaccination session site to prevent Covid-19 transmission. The mock drill also includes concurrent monitoring and review at block and district levels, and preparation of feedback which will be reviewed by State Task Force and will be shared with Union Health Ministry later. Similar exercise of dry run for the distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccine was conducted in various States and UTs separately on different occasions in December 2020.

Taking the Covid-19 vaccine is voluntary. Both vaccines are to be stored at a temperature between 2 and 8 degree Celsius. One needs to take two doses of one type of Covid-19 vaccine at 4 to 12 weeks apart as different Covid-19 vaccines aren't interchangeable. One needs to take at least half an hour rest after getting vaccinated and should inform the authority for any discomfort. Like other vaccines, it has also some degree of common side-effects like mild fever, pain, allergy, etc. Medicines used for cancer, diabetes, hypertension don't affect the Covid-19 vaccine efficacy. In fact, they should take the vaccine as early as possible as they are high risk-groups for Covid-19. Generally, the protective level of antibodies will develop two weeks after receiving the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine. A Covid-19 recovered individual also can receive Covid-19 vaccine. However, people with active and symptomatic Covid-19 should not go to vaccination session sites as they may spread the infection at the site. They should defer vaccination for at least 14 days after the symptoms are resolved.

It is seen that most of the people are thinking as if the Covid-19 pandemic has ended in India. At the present moment, the number of positive Covid-19 cases has declined in India but that doesn't mean that there is no possibility of a sudden increase of Covid-19 cases in future. As the efficacy of both Covishield and Covaxin isn't too high and there is a doubt whether they will be effective against the mutant UK variant, people should not drop the safety guard till a foolproof Covid-19 vaccine is developed. Till then the use of mask and hand sanitizers, frequent hand washing, maintaining reparatory hygiene and physical distancing should be followed strictly for a Covid-19-free India. The Indians will be able to combat Covid-19, even if there is rise in infection due to the UK strain of SARS-CoV-2 in the country, if we strictly follow above safety norms till a foolproof Covid-19 vaccine is available in India. We remember that, when the Covid-19 pandemic was in its initial stages in 2020, we didn't adhere to the safety norms issued by the Government. The results were devastating. Hope the mistakes will not be repeated till India gets a foolproof Covid-19 vaccine.