MUMBAI – India is rushing to contain a second wave of the coronavirus, but its vaccination campaign is reaching skeptics like Akbar Mohamed Patel.
A resident of Mumbai’s densely populated Dharavi slum, Patel survived a severe coronavirus attack in May. The first wave prompted the Mumbai authorities to isolate their housing complex, confining thousands of people for almost two months.
Still, the current campaign has been hampered by a slow initial government implementation, as well as skepticism and apathy from people like Patel and his neighbors. “On social media, we found that all of this is a big game to make money,” said Patel. About the vaccine, he said, “many things have been hidden”.
The coronavirus, once apparently withdrawn, is again spreading across India. Confirmed infections increased to about 31,600 a day, from a low of about 9,800 in February. In a recent two-week period, deaths increased by 82 percent.
The outbreak is centered in the state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, the country’s financial center. Entire districts of the state have returned to the blockade. Scientists are investigating whether a new strain found there is more virulent, such as variants found in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.
Authorities are under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step up testing and vaccination, especially in Mumbai, to avoid disruptions like last year’s dramatic national blockade and the resulting economic recession.
“I am very categorical in saying that we must stop it, contain it, right here,” said Dr. Rahul Pandit, an intensive care physician at a private hospital in Mumbai and a member of the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force.
India’s vaccination campaign could have global consequences.
Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said an expected drop in supply of Britain’s Covid-19 vaccine resulted from a nearly one-month delay in the delivery of five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured in India. . The reasons for the delay are not clear, but the manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, said that shipments will depend in part on India’s domestic needs.
India is a crucial link in the vaccination supply chain. Amid the accumulation of the United States and other wealthy countries, India has donated or sold tens of millions of doses to other countries, even as it struggles to vaccinate its own people. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign minister, said that the availability of vaccines in India will determine how many doses go abroad.
Although vaccines were initially available only in public hospitals, India is now applying vaccines in private clinics and huge makeshift vaccination centers, and is considering making them available in pharmacies as well. The vaccination schedule has been extended, and those eligible can register in person and receive the vaccine on the same day, bypassing the online scheduling system.
The Indian government is trying to recover. Since launching a nationwide vaccination campaign two months ago, acceptance has been disappointing. Less than 3 percent of the population received an injection, including about half of healthcare professionals. At the current rate, it will take India about a decade to vaccinate 70% of its population, according to one estimate. In comparison, about a quarter of the United States’ population has already received at least one injection.
Not everyone in India has the Internet access necessary to register for a photo online. But the campaign was also plagued by public skepticism. The government approved an internally developed vaccine, called Covaxin, even before its safety and efficacy tests ended, although preliminary findings have since suggested that it works.
The other injection available in India is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was suspended in some countries after several patients reported blood clots and strokes, although scientists have not found a link between the injections and the diseases.
Some of the tepid responses may boil down to apathy. A national study released in February found that one in five Indians probably already had Covid-19. City surveys show even higher prevalence rates. The disease is just one of many that people in India worry about, in addition to tuberculosis, dengue and bird flu. Many people are struggling to recover from the massive financial blow to India’s blockade last year and cannot afford to take time off work to stand in line for a chance.
“These are precarious people. Bread, butter depends on your daily work. They cannot sit back and relax and wait for the wave to pass, ”said Kiran Dighavkar, the Mumbai district assistant commissioner that includes Dharavi. “They cannot afford to quarantine, so the only option is to vaccinate these people as early as possible.”
Health experts are encouraging Modi to do more, including making the vaccine available to more people. Older adults, health professionals and frontline employees and some people with health problems may currently receive vaccines.
“I would try to put the injection in the arm of every Indian aged 18 and over, and I would do that now,” said Dr. NK Ganguly, president of a medical research institute in New Delhi.
Persuading the 800,000 residents of Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, to get vaccinated is considered critical. Residents travel on business to every corner of the city of 20 million inhabitants. The authorities are reintroducing what in the pandemic they once called Dharavi’s model: if the disease can be contained there, transmission can be contained throughout the city and even further.
It won’t be easy, although just five kilometers away, a jumbo vaccination center is administering about 15,000 vaccines a day, free of charge.
Day and night, Dharavi is full of life. People overflow from thin corrugated metal houses, stacked on top of each other like matchboxes, to crowded paths, mostly unpaved, tied with loose electrical wires. Animals slide between parked motorcycles and piles of rubble. Shops, tanneries and factories are squeezed close to houses of worship and community bathrooms.
“We’ve been doing well all this time,” said Abdul Razad Rakim, a 61-year-old diabetic, from a folding chair in front of the tiny apartment he shares with his wife, Shamim. “Why do we have to go?”
A short walk away, Janabai Shinde, a former janitor in the city’s health department, was crouched on the front step, getting up every few minutes to spit the red tobacco juice down the drain.
“I go hiking on this trail. I sit here for some fresh air. I haven’t gone out much since the blockade, ”said Shinde. Her son, who works at the city hall, has already registered her for a vacancy at the vaccination post. She said she hoped her neighbors would join her.
“It is for our good,” she said.
The Mumbai government has enlisted humanitarian aid groups to set up aid counters in Dharavi, where residents can ask questions and complete the online registration to make a free consultation.
Plans are underway to create a vaccination center within the limits of the favela and to reopen an institutional quarantine center with thousands of beds, according to Dighavkar, the assistant commissioner.
Last week, while Maharashtra registered the largest number of new cases since September, the chief executive of a humanitarian aid group gave a stimulating talk at Gold Filled Heights, an apartment complex widely occupied by members of the Jain religious group, which manages many of the jewels. companies in Dharavi.
“We cannot let the virus spread again,” said chief executive Shantilal Muttha. “If it spreads in Dharavi, it will become a threat to all of Mumbai and Maharashtra.”
Jyoti Shelar contributed reporting.