India’s vaccination policy should be flexible enough to prevent a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases and the jabs should be given to all adults now, at least two public health experts have said.
One of them also said the distribution of vaccines should not be even across the country and priority should be given to poll-bound states like Bengal where large assemblies of people are being reported frequently.
In Bengal, like in other parts of India, the Covid vaccination drive now covers healthcare personnel, frontline workers, people above 60 and those above 45 with comorbidities.
“If we really want to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to immunise the young population along with the elderly. It's not either/or. It’s both,” Devi Shetty, the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, told Metro.
“Covid is a socially mediated disease. It is the young who have more social interactions than the elderly and they also travel much more. The elderly people don’t go out much.”
Shetty said vaccinating the younger population could prevent a new surge, while immunisation of the elderly people would prevent mortality.
Shetty also stressed the importance of wearing masks. “If every Indian starts wearing the mask for one month, then I think the number of cases would come down by more than 50 per cent,” he said.
In Bengal, till Friday, 31.6 lakh people have been administered vaccine shots. On Friday, more than two lakh people got doses but experts said the number had to be increased.
Like in several other states, the number of Covid-19 cases has been rising every day in Bengal since end-February.
On Friday, Bengal recorded 347 new Covid cases. One week back, the number was 277. On February 19, it was 194.
Public health expert Abhijit Chowdhury, too, said the younger people should be inoculated against Covid along with the elderly.
“Younger people go out for work every day and are exposed to Covid more (than the elderly ones). If they contract the virus, the elderly people at home will be exposed to the virus, too,” Chowdhury said.
“The vaccination programme in Bengal should be intensified in urban areas, where the chance of spread is higher than rural areas because of the large population and more social interactions…. If we cannot do targeted vaccination of age groups and areas, it will not be possible to contain the surge.”
Cardiac surgeon Shetty stressed the need to increase the supply of doses and urged the Centre to allow more companies to manufacture vaccines. “The problem of supply of vaccines will be resolved by the government. This is a problem in other countries, too. Like the UK. We can have more manufacturers supplying vaccines,” said Shetty.
However, the vaccination programme should continue to be run by the government, he said, “to ensure the supply chain and storage is maintained properly”.
Chowdhury said the Centre’s vaccine distribution policy should change. “The supply of vaccines cannot be even throughout the country. In states like Bengal where we are having the Assembly elections, the Covid situation can get worse as many young people are taking part in rallies. Also in states like Maharashtra, there is a high incidence of Covid. In such states, the Centre should supply more vaccines compared to other states to ensure maximum numbers of people are vaccinated,” Chowdhury said.
