COVID-19 vaccination target of 13 lakh/day achievable, says report, citing Jan Dhan success
- 'Though it seems a humongous task but we opened 12.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts in the first phase between 28 Aug’14 to Jan’15, or 8 lakhs per day,' the report mentioned
The central government's target rate of vaccinating 13 lakh people per day during the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive will help India to spread the coronavirus pandemic quickly, stated a research report by the State Bank of India. India has recently granted emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines — Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and Covishield by the Serum Institute of India.
The government is planning to inoculate nearly 30 crore people by August this year, the report said. Nearly 13.27 lakh people will be receiving COVID-19 vaccines every day, according to government's estimates, the report mentioned."Though it seems a humongous task but we opened 12.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts in the first phase between 28 Aug’14 to Jan’15, or 8 lakhs per day," the report mentioned.
The report estimated the minimum vaccination rate at 15,645 persons per day to achieve endemic equilibrium (EE) which means controlling the spreads without 100% immunisation. "We estimate the minimum vaccination rate at 15,645 persons per day to achieve EE that is remarkably low and will be a less resource intensive." the report noted.
On the cost of the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive, the report said, "Taking the cost of a dose of vaccine as given by Serum institute and administrative cost as 100-150/dose, the cost to the overnment or otherwise of vaccinating 30 crore population would come to around ₹21,000 – 27,000 crore and vaccinating another 50 crore will cost ₹35,000 - 45,000 crore. This would mean total cost of around 0.3%-0.4% of GDP."
"Historical data on vaccine programmes in India shows that India had huge installed annual capacity in case of Polio (OPV), Tetanus (TT), Tetanus Diptheria (Td) and also diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus (DPT) vaccine," the report stated.
"Meanwhile, a new strain has already reached a couple of countries. Though the countries have started vaccination programme, only a small percentage of population have been given the first dose of vaccine so far and by the time they receive the second dose they might spread the infection to many people," it said.
"The gap between the new strain reported and the day when the second dose of vaccine would be given is highest for Denmark and Italy, followed by UK," it mentioned.
The report was authored by Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India.
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Business NewsNewsIndiaCOVID-19 vaccination target of 13 lakh/day achievable, says report, citing Jan Dhan success
First Published:6 Jan 2021, 09:37 PM IST
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