New variant in India complicates COVID-19 fight

"The challenges would be both in the logistics of the supply chain and in the health workforce needed to administer the vaccine and monitor the adverse effects. The former may be easier to solve. Organizing the administration of the vaccine to the huge (1.35 billion) population will call for a large health workforce," says Professor K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Starting from April 1, those who are above 45 years of age will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination, announced Union Minister PrakashJavadekar on Tuesday.

To date, only people above 60 years of age and those in the age group of 45-60 who have co-morbidities were eligible for vaccination.

Mehernath Kalchuri, an advocate from Maharasthra Bar Council and Trustee of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, said that the government of India has been proactive to frequently instruct its population about the benefits of the vaccine at a rapid rate. There are about 2 to 3 million shots being administered on a daily basis, he said.

Kalchuri, 67, had many members in his family being vaccinated at least with the first dose including his 90-year-old mother. "I got vaccinated in early March and I am about to get my second shot of the vaccine in less than a week from now".

However, he noted that there is a misconception that "once vaccinated then you are immune from the virus straightway". With the vaccination drive in progress, he can see that the public approach towards COVID-19 becoming more laid back with increased public activity, such as going out, shopping and travel.

"The general activities of the population began slowly resuming back to pre-COVID-19 levels. This I believe was where things went wrong because we are now back to having high number of cases with this invisible enemy," he said.

"The difficulty is it will take time for a more than 1 billion population to get fully vaccinated with both the doses," he added.

"With the release of vaccines which only require a single dose, there appears to be a good prospect for this process to be expedited."

Last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a virtual interaction with chief ministers of all Indian states, stressed on the urgent need of stopping the "emerging second peak" of coronavirus cases in the country. The sudden spike in COVID cases in some states was a cause of concern, the PM pointed out at the interaction.

At the Anand Vihar and Kashmiri Gate interstate bus terminus in the national capital, several people were found jostling to get into buses. Pointing to a long queue at the Anand Vihar terminus one police officer said, "How can we control such crowds and penalize them? Most of them can't afford to pay a fine if we penalize them."

Many in the queue were found not wearing a mask and violating social distancing norms, the police officer added.

Aparajit Chakraborty is a freelancer for China Daily.