India is struggling to convince its health and frontline professionals to take a controversially approved home-grown COVID-19 vaccine without final-stage efficacy data, government data showed on Thursday, days before an implementation wider.
The country has the second highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world, after the United States, with cases emerging recently as the use of masks has decreased and states have reduced measures of social distance.
Lack of confidence in an internally developed vaccine could prevent India from meeting its goal of vaccinating 300 million of its 1.35 billion people by August.
India has vaccinated more than 10.5 million health care workers and first-line workers since the start of its immunization campaign on 16 January.
But only 1.2 million, or about 11 percent, of them took COVAXIN, the vaccine developed locally by Bharat Biotech, while the remaining 9.4 million used AstraZeneca’s licensed vaccine, according to the Co-Win online platform government used to track the vaccination campaign.
The federal government of India has so far ordered 10 million doses of COVAXIN and 21 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection. The government claims to have received at least 5.5 million doses of COVAXIN.
“It’s all because of the initial discussion about how [COVAXIN] it was just an experimental vaccine, as it had not completed the Phase 3 trial, ”said Dr. Subhash Salunkhe, who advises the state government of Maharashtra on the vaccination strategy.
“These things created doubts in people’s minds, resulting in less acceptance. Availability is not a concern at this time. “
However, India’s health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday attributed the lower absorption of COVAXIN to Bharat Biotech’s limited production capacity compared to that of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, which is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine for low and middle income countries.
“We found that, in proportion to the amount of vaccine available to us, [COVAXIN’s] the off-take is quite satisfactory, ”he said at a news conference.
The health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the latest figures, showing that only about 12 percent of the requested doses were administered.
Earlier this month, Chhattisgarh, an opposition-ruled state of 32 million, told the federal government that it would not use COVAXIN until its effectiveness could be proven in an ongoing test.
Epidemiologists and public health experts have also criticized COVAXIN’s approval as rushed.
Bharat Biotech said the trial’s efficacy data on some 26,000 volunteers will be released soon. The company, along with India’s drug regulator, says the vaccine is safe and effective based on initial and intermediate studies.
Bharat Biotech did not immediately comment on the low absorption of its vaccine.
The government is trying to streamline vaccinations as cases increase, especially in Maharashtra, in western and southern Kerala state, possibly because they have reopened suburban trains and schools.
The use of masks and social distance have also largely disappeared, with major events such as international cricket matches being played in front of tens of thousands of spectators who hardly follow the rules of COVID-19.
India reported 16,738 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the biggest daily jump in a month, health ministry data showed on Thursday, bringing the total to 11.05 million.
More than half of the new cases occurred in Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest region and home to its financial capital, Mumbai, which recorded a record 8,807 cases on Wednesday.
Deaths across the country increased by 138, also the highest in a month, totaling 156,705.