India 6th in vaccination coverage, will move to 3rd place in next few days: Dr Vinod K Paul

16 AEFI hospitalisations out of 23 lakh vaccinations so far translates to 0.0007 per cent with no case of severe/serious AEFI or death due to vaccination reported so far

Chairing the 23rd meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 by a video-conference, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare pointed out that India has earned the trust of the global community by supplying indigenously made vaccines at this crucial hour.

Dr Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog who was present virtually, informed that India currently stands sixth in providing vaccination coverage and will soon move to the third place in the next few days.

Dr Paul also said that 16 AEFI hospitalisations out of 23 lakh vaccinations so far translates to 0.0007  per cent with no case of severe/serious AEFI or death due to vaccination reported so far. He also apprised the GoM on how India’s daily new cases trajectory compare favourably to the rest of the world.

Recapping gains of the past year

Recapping the past one year since the Group of Ministers was constituted for management of COVID-19 and met for the first time on February 3, 2020, Dr Harsh Vardhan pointed out that less than 12,000 cases were reported in the last 24 hours and the Active Caseload has reduced to just 1.73 lakhs.

Detailing the achievements, he continued, “146 districts have no new cases since last seven days, 18 districts since the last 14 days, six districts since 21 days and 21 districts since the last 28 days. This has been achieved with pro-active testing of which more than 19.5 crore have been conducted so far. The current testing capacity rests at 12 lakhs per day.”

He added that out of the total active cases, 0.46 per cent are on ventilators, 2.20 per cent are in ICU and 3.02 per cent are on oxygen support. Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that 165 cases of UK variant have been reported so far and are under supervised quarantine and surveillance.

The Union Health Minister mentioned that India has supported other countries with supply of the COVID-19 vaccine during such global public health crisis, and trained the personnel of several countries in vaccine administration. “By being a “mitra” to the global community, India has earned global trust by supplying indigenously made vaccines at this crucial hour,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

Current and future scenario of COVID-19 in India

Presenting a granular analysis of the trajectory of the pandemic in India Dr Sujeet K Singh, Director (NCDC),  said India’s Case Fatality Ratio is showing a declining trend from 3.4 per cent in mid-June 2020 to the current rate of 1.4 per cent due to effective clinical management.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu has the highest recovery rate of 99.79 per cent followed by Arunachal Pradesh (99.58 per cent) and Odisha (99.07 per cent) while Kerala has recovery rate of 91.61 per cent because of its present high active caseload.

Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kozhikode remain the top five districts reporting the highest number of active cases currently. Maharashtra and Kerala are contributing 70 per cent of the active caseload of the country at the moment.

Dr Singh advised caution in the coming months based on the nature of transmission being witnessed in other countries and because of the mutant strain of the virus being reported throughout the world.

Vaccine development and distribution, within and out of the country

Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary showcased the logistics of the vaccination exercise and the gains made so far; 112.4 lakh doses of vaccines were distributed to States/UTs within 3 days (from January 12-14, 2021) prior to the start of the exercise; another additional 115.6 lakh doses to States/UTs were completed on January 20.

69,000 Programme Managers, 2.5 lakh vaccinators and 4.4 lakh other team members are trained so far; 93,76,030 health care workers and 53,94,098 frontline workers are now registered on the Co-WIN portal. He also updated on the communication strategies employed in co-ordination with the States and UTs to counter misinformation and rumour mongering.

S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, and Head of the Sub-group within NEGVAC apprised the GoM on the actions taken to balance domestic requirements vis-à-vis requests from other countries for Indian vaccines.