BackManmohan writes to Modi on tackling jab shortfall
The veteran Congress leader called for publicizing the government’s vaccine order figures; creating a transparent formula to allocate vaccines to states; granting flexibility to states to set vaccine eligibility
PremiumFormer prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, suggesting five ways to tackle India’s vaccine shortage.
The veteran Congress leader called for publicizing the government’s vaccine order figures; creating a transparent formula to allocate vaccines to states; granting flexibility to states to set vaccine eligibility; supporting vaccine makers and invoking compulsory licensing; and relaxing bridging study requirements for approved foreign vaccines.
The government should “resist the temptation to look at the absolute numbers being vaccinated and focus instead on the percentage of the population vaccinated," Singh wrote.
Currently, the central government has set a minimum age of 45 to be eligible to receive the vaccine, unless one is in the priority group of healthcare and frontline workers.
“For instance, states may want to designate school teachers, bus, three-wheelers and taxi drivers, municipal and panchayat staff, and possibly lawyers who have to attend courts as frontline workers," the former prime minister wrote.
Singh wrote that the waiver on bridging trials could be for a limited period, during which bridging trials could be completed in India.
“All consumers of such vaccines could be duly cautioned that these vaccines are being allowed for use based on the approval granted by the relevant authority abroad," he said.
Acknowledging the huge potential in the private sector, Singh recommended that the government actively support the domestic vaccine producers to expand their manufacturing facilities by providing them with funds and other concessions.
“I believe this is the time to invoke the compulsory licensing provisions in the law so that a number of companies are able to produce the vaccines under a licence," he said.
The former prime minister also acknowledged the uncertainty among people in the country who are “wondering when their lives would go back to normal".
On Sunday morning, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said over 122.6 million people in India were vaccinated against covid-19 in 92 days. It added that in the past 24 hours, more than 2.6 million people were inoculated.
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