Why vaccination is a must as pandemic returns

The challenge for India in handling the second wave of Covid-19 in the country is humongous. How does one vaccinate 1.3 billion people before the new variants take over? This challenge comes at a time when elections to the Assemblies are being held and the process would last till May.

On the other hand, we have adamant farmers unions continuing their dharna in Delhi and they are also holding massive public meetings being dismissive of Covid-19 threat.

All this at a time when new Covid-19 strains are rapidly engulfing the population. Nearly three-fourths of India's Covid-19 cases have been traced to five states as the country witnesses a spike in March after two months of reduced tally.

The country, which experts say may be facing a second wave of the pandemic, has recorded more than 100,000 cases of the coronavirus disease in the second week of March.

The likely signs of the second wave are surfacing almost a year after India announced its first lockdown triggered by rising cases in March 2020. This lends greater urgency to India's vaccination drive, which aims to inoculate 300 million people between mid-January and August.

At present, there are four mutations of the Covid-19 virus in India, namely, U.K. variant 1, U.K. variant 2, South African variant and Brazil variant. The country has a long history of successfully running immunization programs across daunting, difficult geographies and inoculating hundreds of millions of people against polio, measles, tuberculosis and other diseases.

But the Covid-19 vaccination drive did not get off to a great start. On March 1, as the second phase of the vaccination drive started, eligibility was expanded to citizens above age 60 and those above 45 years with comorbidities.

Amid reports of vaccine wastage in the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday urged everyone to take the vaccine shots and reiterated their safety. "No one should have any doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines. I urge all to take the vaccine shots," Vardhan said in Lok Sabha. Vaccine scepticism is reportedly leading to wastage in the country.

The Centre, while monitoring the vaccination drive across the country, has identified inadequate training of vaccinators in drawing vaccine from multi-dose vials and lack of detailed planning at sites as two key gaps that has led to vaccine wastage.

Over 3.39 crore people have been vaccinated till now. This is not time to underestimate the virus. The WHO has gone ahead and stated that this could now be called a seasonal virus. This only means that like common cold and flu this could return often. The danger is in its coming back as a new strain that could be fatal to us.

Vaccination does a very good job of preventing symptomatic infection, but does a less good job at preventing asymptomatic cases. However, it is always better to have a population with a weak virus residue that cannot spread.

Let us leave aside our preferences and politics and line up before the vaccination centres. We simply cannot afford another lockdown that affects millions of marginal lives. Also, let us follow the SOPs' studiously. It is criminal to spread the virus.