Bharat Rakshak

Gupta said, “The administration has identified 26 lakh people above the age of 45 and 15.4 lakhs have been vaccinated at least one dose till date. Close to 60% have been vaccinated and our target is to reach 75% in the next 30 days. We need 4 lakh additional doses and we will get it from the central government.” BBMP said they have identified 64 lakh in the 18-44 age group and only 9 lakh (or 13%) have been vaccinated.

We had a vaccine drought in April and May, and there will still be a gap between supply and demand at least till July end. But after that it will be relatively smooth sailing.

Around mid-May, the government announced that it was expecting vaccine supplies to touch 216-220 crore (enough for two doses for every adult in this country) by December, but even if we achieve only three-quarters of that projection, we will be sitting pretty.

We can pick and choose who we buy from, and also focus attention on procuring vaccines for teens and younger children, who may become more vulnerable as adults develop herd immunity. The focus of procurement must be on vaccines for children to protect them during wave three.

As things stand, government has already placed orders for 440 million doses with Serum Institute (250 million) and Bharat Biotech (190 million), and another 300 million doses with Biological E, which adds up to advance orders for 740 million doses — enough to vaccinate 350+ million adults comfortably, even accounting for some wastage.

These orders could go up as the year proceeds, and do not include the doses that may be made available from Sputnik V (156 million), Novavax (200 million), and the Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine (50 million). More may be in the pipeline as we move towards the third quarter of this financial year.

However, here’s the point: it is not reasonable to assume that all adults will indeed want a jab, given the residual amount of vaccine hesitancy among many groups of people, and also in some religious communities.

“The target is to hit the one crore daily jabs mark in August. The new centralised free vaccination policy will help in this objective," a senior government official said.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to accord Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) security cover to the Hyderabad-based campus of Bharat Biotech, one of the major Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers in the country, official sources said.

They said a decision in this regard was taken after a review meeting of the security experts in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and accordingly the CISF has been informed to prepare accordingly.

Prof Shamika Ravi
@ShamikaRavi

"The gambit was an instant hit as more than 50 people turned up for vaccination on Monday despite heavy rainfall." Arunachal showing the way to overcome #VaccineHesitancy Clapping hands sign

Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་།
@PemaKhanduBJP

In Arunachal's Yazali, you get 20kg rice free with COVID-19 jab | EastMojo https://eastmojo.com/news/2021/06/07/in ... id-19-jab/

Suraj wrote:Day 144: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1725428
Day 145: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1725760

24,24,79,167 - 23,88,40,635 = 36,38,532

Wow, this is something new - a Wednesday with a higher peak than a Monday. This has pretty much never happened before, from recollection. Tue and Wed are almost always lull days .

Zynda wrote:Per this article, BLR has still long way to go...I think currently, around 1L doses per day are being administered in BLR but population of BLR is 1.27 Crores...

Citing an example of areas with vaccine hesitancy, the official said administration in several districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Sultanpur, Amethi, Aligarh and Moradabad and in Haryana’s Mewat has reported reluctance towards vaccines based on dogmas, religious reasons and rumours.

“In Moradabdad because of locals not turning up for vaccines, we found people from the cities showing up for inoculation. Since the administration is making efforts, vaccine hesitancy is slowly ebbing. It also helps that Islamic countries have said they won’t allow entry without vaccines. Even for performing Haj, pilgrims will need to be vaccinated and should not have been hospitalised six months prior to travel,” the official said.

The official said in some areas such vaccine hesitancy was promoted by the statements of some opposition leaders who raised doubts about the Indian vaccines. “In Amethi and Rae Bareily some people said since the Congress leaders have not taken the vaccines, they too were skeptical of taking the shots,” the official said. The BJP has accused SP leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav of promoting vaccine hesitancy by dubbing the Indian vaccines as “BJP vaccines”.

The ministry says as per India's demographic distribution, 86.5 crore people or 63.1 per cent of the population is above 18 years of age. Assuming herd immunity at 80 per cent, the target population to be vaccinated is 70 crore, it adds

COVID-19 vaccines not authorized by FDA but listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO)2
- People who have received all recommended doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that is listed for emergency use by WHO do not need any additional doses with an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.
- People who have not received all the recommended doses of a COVID-19 vaccine listed for emergency use by WHO may be offered a complete FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine series.
COVID-19 vaccines neither authorized by FDA nor listed for emergency use by WHO
- People who received all or some of the recommended doses of a COVID-19 vaccine that is neither authorized by FDA nor listed for emergency use by WHO may be offered a complete FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine series.

vijayk wrote:Just saw on skynews Australia that India is using ivermectin which is helping reduce cases.

TN CM Stalin banned usage and here cases are going up.

Is it true?

Now I saw that ICMR also removed it from protocol? If so, I will be disappointed very much. ICMR is totally screwing it up

Thank God, until an atheist and new Chief Minister, MK Stalin, took power on May 7, 2021, in Tamil Nadu and proclaimed that Remdesivir would replace Ivermectin as their drug of choice. Now Tamil Nadu's cases are diverging from the states that chose Ivermectin.

Goa's cases have dropped 62% in just nine days since announcing the Ivermectin policy - from 3124 down to 1204. The other Indian Ivermectin states have also enjoyed a substantial decrease in new infections. By contrast, Tamil's citizens face an ascending escalator of cases bringing untold misery and mortality to this southern Indian community, which begs the question - When will Tamil Nadu hear the message that Ivermectin saves lives? When will the rest of humanity take heed?

Suraj wrote:
The WHO regularly updates the EUL list. It is linked off Emergency use listing (EUL)/Covid-19 Vaccines. Covaxin is due for its screening meeting this month.

Ph 3 Timelines and reasons to trust the process: Largest efficacy trial conducted in the developing world (sample size=25,800). The last volunteer was vaccinated in Mid March. Mandatory CDSCO/FDA requirement of a 2-month safety follow-up for all volunteers landed us in Mid May

vijayk wrote: Now I saw that ICMR also removed it from protocol? If so, I will be disappointed very much. ICMR is totally screwing it up

Uttam wrote:

Suraj wrote:
The WHO regularly updates the EUL list. It is linked off Emergency use listing (EUL)/Covid-19 Vaccines. Covaxin is due for its screening meeting this month.

The one thing that may be preventing Covaxin from getting a EUL from WHO is that the final phase 3 results will be out in July. More detail from Dr. Raches Ella here.

Ph 3 Timelines and reasons to trust the process: Largest efficacy trial conducted in the developing world (sample size=25,800). The last volunteer was vaccinated in Mid March. Mandatory CDSCO/FDA requirement of a 2-month safety follow-up for all volunteers landed us in Mid May

Dr Reddy’s had earlier tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund that markets Sputnik V globally, to distribute first 250 million doses of the vaccine.

The deal has been closed to supply at least 750 Covid-19 vaccine freezers to various hospitals and institutions across the country, 500 of these being specifically for Sputnik V.

SandeepA wrote:Any reason why Bihar is showing massive spike in fatalities today? Data error?

https://www.covid19india.org/

President Biden’s administration plans to donate 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses produced by Pfizer Inc. to the rest of the world, according to people familiar with the plans.

saip wrote: Does not mention anything about ultra cold infrastructure and how they will handle that.

Vayutuvan wrote:

saip wrote: Does not mention anything about ultra cold infrastructure and how they will handle that.

The same way some states of the Union (USA) handled the extra vaccines - dump them into garbage.

Zynda wrote:A question for the doctors here...one of my cousin had regular flu/viral fever last week. She got herself tested for Covid (RT-PCR) and the results came out negative and she had only fever & slight cold, from which she recovered quickly. When she asked her family/treating doctor about Covid vaccination, she was told that any viral fever will generate antibodies and these could reduce the effectiveness of the Vaccine and hence around 2 weeks gap is recommended. She was just speaking to a friend of hers who is a GP in UK and apparently her friend told her that no such recommendation is prescribed by NHS and she could take Covid vaccine ASAP. Now, she is confused. Not sure what ICMR recommendations are...so hoping for some suggestions from doctors here.

ritesh wrote:

vijayk wrote: Now I saw that ICMR also removed it from protocol? If so, I will be disappointed very much. ICMR is totally screwing it up

Curious case this of Ivermectin?? What does the broader peoples opinion here?

I suggested this to my sister as she was still going to office travelling in local trains here in mumbai after Goa govt announcement. Is it ok to continue for more time as a precautionary measure?

DrRatnadip wrote:She should take vaccine as early as possible if she is RT PCR negative..

saip wrote:

SandeepA wrote:Any reason why Bihar is showing massive spike in fatalities today? Data error?

https://www.covid19india.org/

They have reset the numbers after reconciling. Went up by 3951. There is an info bubble next to Bihar's name.
Link

DrRatnadip wrote:

ritesh wrote:
Curious case this of Ivermectin?? What does the broader peoples opinion here?

I suggested this to my sister as she was still going to office travelling in local trains here in mumbai after Goa govt announcement. Is it ok to continue for more time as a precautionary measure?

Ivermectine does help in reducing severity of symptoms and may also have some role as post exposure prophylaxis.. There is no harm in continuing Ivermectin ..

Some universities do, but others (e.g. the University of California system) accept any vaccine approved by a local authority as sufficient basis for coverage,

vijayk wrote:

Prof Shamika Ravi
@ShamikaRavi

"The gambit was an instant hit as more than 50 people turned up for vaccination on Monday despite heavy rainfall." Arunachal showing the way to overcome #VaccineHesitancy Clapping hands sign

The country has administered cumulatively more than 24.58 Cr Vaccine Doses as per the 7 pm provision report today

Suraj wrote:Almost 246 million on Thursday. Sounds like the 250 mark will be hit on Saturday unless Friday is a blockbuster 4m dose day.

Uttam wrote: BTW, very nice article. I wish I had the ability to share with Swarajymag's non-subscribers. Because there are still a lot of people who blame "small" orders for "slow" vaccination.

arshyam wrote:

Uttam wrote: BTW, very nice article. I wish I had the ability to share with Swarajymag's non-subscribers. Because there are still a lot of people who blame "small" orders for "slow" vaccination.

Swarajya offers up to 7 free articles per month, so please feel free to share. It's important to get the word out.