India needs to speed up vaccination: Dr KS Reddy

New Delhi: With Covid-19 rising its ugly head yet again and the India's daily positive case count topping the world tally, there is a widespread apprehension among people that the so-called second wave of the deadly pandemic might cause more damage. But what is the remedy?

Dr K Srinath Reddy, a renowned health expert and president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) feels that India needs to speed up vaccination drive.

"Most of the media has already declared it as the second wave. However, there is a big spike in cases though it's a bit early to say whether it becomes a big wave or not. It depends on how much we can contain. Right now, we have to treat it with great seriousness because the cases are rising every day, number of deaths is rising. We may be able to shrink the wave, but we have to take action. Vaccination drive

needs to be sped up," Dr Reddy told Bizz Buzz.

On lower vaccine acceptance rate, Dr Reddy explained that the reason for low rate of immunization might be attributed to the general population perception against the infection post-introduction of vaccines in the market.

"Remember when vaccination drive started in January, almost everybody in India believed that the problem has mostly disappeared. Threat perception was low. Then people started saying that there is some controversy on the regulatory approval of the vaccines, media criticizing the process of vaccine approval. Even two industry manufacturers were criticizing each other. When you do not feel the threat, and there are some concerns regarding vaccines, vaccination uptakes will be less," he said.

Now the situation may change because the cases are going up, hospitals are getting filled, and some evidence is seen on the efficacy of Covaxin. And if more vaccine brands come in, then people might go for them. So, it is question of what is perceived to be the benefit of the vaccine and the seriousness of the threat, he added.

As India has entered into the third phase of world's largest vaccination drive, the role of private player to carry out the immunization process is being much talked about. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as of March, has allowed private hospitals functioning as Covid Vaccination Centres (CVCs) to recover a charge subject to a ceiling of Rs 250 per person per dose. The private hospitals, however, continue to raise objection on the fee.

"As far as pricing within India is concerned, the government has to regulate. As for the export, it is up to the private players to negotiate with the international purchaser, and I don't think government is interfering with that," he said.

However, I don't think private sector can be suddenly given the freedom to export as much as they want, when India's needs are still unmatched or charge very high prices for India. It can't be an open market situation, he added. In the recent weeks, health industry experts had warned that the new strain of Covid detected in India resembles the behavior of the UK variant of the deadly virus. On March 30th, Dr Rajesh Malhotra, head of vaccination drive, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, New Delhi), told Bizz Buzz recently that the emergence of a 'second wave' of Covid-19 is possible given the sudden spike in the cases.

India tops global Covid tally

India's daily Covid-19 tally is now the highest in the world, surpassing Brazil and the US, as it recorded over one lakh cases in the last 24 hours. During the past one day, Brazil recorded 31,359 new Covid-19 cases, while US logged 34,282. Besides this, India, which now recorded an all-time high of 1,03,558 new cases on Monday, has also surpassed Brazil's average tally of 64,324 and the US's 64,019 to become the biggest hotspot. It is now recording an average of 78,489 Covid-19 cases per day, based on a 7-day moving average to visualise the number of new Covid-19 cases and calculate the rate of change.

Notably, India, which is witnessing the second wave of the pandemic, added 5,49,423 Covid-19 cases over the last week, while US and Brazil logged 4,42,981 and 4,50,268 cases, respectively. Daily cases in India had peaked on September 16 last year, with 97,894 people testing positive for the virus in a single day. India has become the second country in the world, after the US, to add more than 1,00,000 cases in a single day at any time during the pandemic. Eight states - Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab - have shown a steep rise in the daily Covid cases, and account for 81.90 per cent of the new cases.