Chennai: India has enough stockpile of the Covid-19 vaccine for inoculation of priority groups, including healthcare workers and frontline workers, in the first phase, Niti Aayog member V K Paul said on Monday.
Paul, who is also the Chairman of National Expert Group On Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) further said the government will soon announce its plans for purchase and distribution of Covid-19 vaccine.
“Our first phase (of vaccination) comprises priority groups with high risk of mortality and our healthcare and frontline workers. For them, we believe, we have enough (Covid-19 vaccine) stockpile,” he said.
Paul noted that “three to four months from now, there will be other vaccines and the stockpile will be even bigger. And more acceleration can be brought about in the vaccination programme.”
Asked when the government will announce its plans for purchase and distribution, he said, “this will follow. Now the essential has taken place, all these steps will be taken.”
Asked what would be the single biggest challenge in mass vaccination for Covid-19, Paul noted that the biggest challenge encompasses the huge mobilisation that is required for such an effort.
“Well, the single most important challenge for mass vaccination on such a scale is mobilising beneficiaries on the appointed day and to conduct sessions in smooth, systemic protocols, ensuring Covid-19 appropriate precautions, I think is the single biggest challenge,” he observed.
According to Paul, the purpose of vaccination is a staggered ambition and can be seen as hierarchical.
“Ultimately, we would like vaccination to stop, stall and extinguish the pandemic, that is the ultimate purpose,” he said adding that for that to be achieved, a herd immunity of about 70 per cent has to be created either through vaccination or by adding those people who have undergone natural infection.
Paul pointed out that for normal life to go on, there should be enough vaccinated people, so that the country’s industry, schools, transportation, judicial system and Parliamentary activity go on.
Replying to a question that India does not have experience in adult vaccination, the Niti Aayog member noted that countries face new challenges and then they respond on the basis of their intrinsic capability
“We have tremendous experience of running immunisation programs. We have experience of running affairs like national elections which happen over a short period of time across the country. So those experiences and those SOP will come handy and build on that India’s ingenuity, India’s innovation and India’s experience will make it possible for us to mount a successful vaccination programme, even though it is unprecedented,” he added.