‘Centre not in favour of door-to-door vax’

‘Centre not in favour of door-to-door vax’

New Delhi:23,05.2021

The Centre’s disinclination for door-to-door Covid vaccination was determined by the complexity of the operation needing supply chain management and monitoring of AEFI (Adverse Events Following Immunisation) reporting that is not the case with established inoculations like polio, P K Mishra, principal secretary to the PM, has said, reports Pradeep Thakur.

“We must recognise that Covid vaccination is under emergency use authorisation, requiring vaccination supply chains, local infrastructure and equipment, trained medical manpower and links to AEFI reporting. This is not akin to the door-to-door immunisation programme we are familiar with for long known diseases such as polio,” he told TOI.

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‘Aim to vaccinate all adults by year-end’

Speaking on the Centre’s vaccine strategy, Mishra said the government adopted a phased approach to inoculate its citizens based on scientific and epidemiological protocol as well as global best practices, prioritising those needing it the most. “Vaccinating everyone as soon as possible is our goal and we will leave no stone unturned in achieving it,” he said, while pointing out that a comparison of a new injectible vaccine for Covid and an oral one for polio was misplaced.

Mishra said the government aims to vaccinate all adults by the end of this year. “We have developed an indigenous vaccine in record time, and are manufacturing another one under licence agreement,” he said, adding that the Centre is looking into several strategies for scaling and diversifying production. “Our teams are in regular touch with manufacturers, domestic and international, on a daily basis,” he said.

India has vaccinated 19 crore people, the third highest globally and fastest. “This is not an ordinary number by any standards, equivalent, in terms of population, to half of US, 2.5 times UK, 7 times Australia, 35 times New Zealand,” Mishra said while acknowledging the difficulties faced ensuring efficient and sustained last mile delivery across complex supply chains and varied local constraints.

The shift in policy from centralised procurement to let states and private hospitals directly purchase vaccines from manufacturers was part of the strategy. “The change in strategy will lead to increased availability through higher domestic production as well as import of vaccines. While kicking in with a time lag of a few months, the supply is slated to increase from 7 crore per month in April to 16 crore in July and 25 crore in October,” Mishra said.

He said the decrease in daily inoculation is not because of change in policy and less production. “In the early phase of vaccination, we had through regulatory approvals allowed stockpiling from before the vaccination began. That is why we were able to inoculate more people per day as delivery capabilities were systematically ramped up,” he said.