NEW DELHI (AP) – India is expanding its coronavirus vaccination campaign beyond health care and frontline workers, offering vaccines to the elderly and people with medical conditions that put them at risk. One of the first to receive the vaccine on Monday was Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Those now eligible include anyone over 60, as well as those over 45 who have illnesses like heart disease or diabetes that make them vulnerable to serious COVID-19 illnesses. The injections will be given free of charge in government hospitals and will also be sold in more than 10,000 private hospitals at a fixed price of 250 rupees, or $ 3.40, per injection.
But the launch of one of the biggest vaccination initiatives in the world it’s been slow. Amid signs of hesitation among the first groups that offered the vaccine, Modi, 70, received an injection at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. He received the vaccine produced by the Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech – who was met with particular skepticism. He called for everyone to be vaccinated, then tweeted, “Together, let’s make COVID-19 from India free!”
The campaign, which began in January in the country of 1.4 billion people, recently gained even more urgency, as new infections began to increase again after months of steady decline, and scientists have detected worrying variants of the virus that they fear could hasten attacks. infections or make vaccines or treatments less useful.
Dozens of elderly people started lining up outside private hospitals on Monday morning. Sunita Kapoor was among them, waiting for a vaccine with her husband. She said they stayed at home and didn’t find people for months to be protected from the virus – and were looking forward to being able to socialize some more. “We are excited,” said Kapoor, 63.
Many said they had difficulties with the online registration system and then waited hours in line before receiving the vaccine – problems that other countries have also faced.
Dr. Giridhar R. Babu, who studies epidemics at the Public Health Foundation of India, said the elderly’s long wait is a concern as they can catch infections, including COVID-19, in hospitals. “The unintended effect may be that they receive COVID when they get the vaccine,” he said.
Although India is home to the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world and has one of the largest immunization programs, things did not go as planned. Of the 10 million health professionals that the government initially wanted to immunize, only 6.6 million received the first injection of the two-dose vaccines and 2.4 million both. Of the approximately 20 million frontline workers, such as police or health workers, only 5.1 million have been vaccinated so far.
Dr. Gagangdeep Kang, an infectious disease specialist at Christian Medical College Vellore in southern India, said the hesitation of healthcare professionals highlights the scarcity of available information on vaccines. If health professionals are reticent, “do you seriously think the common public will come forward for the vaccine?” she said.
Vaccinating more people quickly is a high priority for India, especially now that infections are increasing again. The country recorded more than 11 million cases, the second in the world behind the United States, and more than 157,000 deaths. The government set a goal to immunize 300 million people, almost the total population of the United States, by August.
The increase in infections in India is most pronounced in the western state of Maharashtra, where the number of active cases has almost doubled to more than 68,000 in the past two weeks. Blockades and other restrictions have been enforced in some areas, and the chief minister of state, Uddhav Thackeray, has warned that another wave of cases is “knocking on our door”.
Similar outbreaks have been reported in states in every corner of the huge country: Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir in the north, Gujarat in the west, West Bengal in the east, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in central India and Telangana in the south.
Leading federal officials have asked authorities in those states to increase the speed of vaccinations in the districts where cases are increasing, to track infection groups and monitor variants.
“There is a sense of urgency because of the mutants and because cases are on the rise,” said Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.
He said the consistent drop in cases over the months resulted in a “reduced threat perception”, leading to the vaccine’s hesitation. “The (vaccination) campaign started when the perception was that the worst was over, so people were more hesitant,” said Reddy.
Others also pointed out that the reluctance to get vaccinated was amplified, at least in part, by the government’s opaque decision-making while giving the green light to vaccines.
But experts say that allowing private hospitals to administer the injections – which started with this new phase of the campaign – should improve access. India’s healthcare system is uneven, and in many small towns, people depend on private hospitals for their medical needs.
Even so, the problems remain. India launched online software to track photos and recipients, but the system was subject to flaws and delays.
The federal government will decide which hospitals will receive which vaccine and people will have no choice between the AstraZeneca vaccine or the Bharat Biotech vaccine, confirmed Dr. Amar Fettle, a nodal COVID-19 officer for the state of Kerala in southern India. The latter obtained authorization from Indian regulators in January, before tests to test the effectiveness of the injection in preventing diseases were completed..
But opening the campaign to private hospitals may allow the wealthy to “buy” places that are providing the AstraZeneca vaccine – an option that the poorest people would not have, said Dr. Anant Bhan, who studies medical ethics.
India now hopes to rapidly increase vaccinations. But the country is likely to continue to see depressions and spikes in infections, and the main lesson is that the pandemic will not end until enough people are vaccinated to spread the virus, said Jishnu Das, a health economist at Georgetown University who advises the West Bengal state on the response to the virus.
“Don’t use a gutter to declare success and say it’s over,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Krutika Pathi and Rishabh Jain contributed to this report.
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