India Cross 10 Million Or 1 Crore COVID-19 Cases As Vaccination Becomes A Reality!

Photo: expresspharma.in

This time India took nearly a month to add another million new cases compared to 22 days for the previous increase as India cross 10 million or 1 crore COVID-19 cases today. This means that the pandemic curve in the country has started flattening with daily additions of new cases reduced to 22000-30000 in the last few days. More promisingly, the recovery rate has crossed 95% with active cases now only just above 3,00,000. However, the daily deaths continue to remain above 300 with Maharashtra contributing the largest share, followed by West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. States like Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu still remain as regions of some concern.

 

Total deaths in the country have reached 145,316 now, and possible vaccination from early next year comes as the major factor of optimism to put the final check on more fatalities. There are three vaccines, namely Covishield, Covaxin and Pfizer-BioNTech, under active consideration of the Indian regulator DCGI, apart from the Russian Sputnik V that has also been doing final phase human trials in India. The DCGI has in fact asked Covishield and Covaxin for more data for the final approval. The results shown so far by all these four vaccines have been promising. After UK, the US FDA had approved Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and the vaccination process has been in full swing now in USA and Europe, apart from Russian and China. As per news reports India is preparing for vaccinating 300 million people in the first phase which includes the health sector frontline workers, people above the age of 50 and people under 50 with comorbidities. Accordingly, arrangements are being made to procure 600 million doses of various vaccines.

 

We have been saying that vaccination is the ultimate solution for a populous democratic country like India, because the triggers for possible future waves of transmission are always there and just cannot be wished away. At the moment the most potent danger is from the Farmers’ agitation that has entered the 25^th day without any solution in sight and the government of India absolutely failing to either win the farmers’ trust or accept their main demand for repealing the three Farm Laws. Political activities, agitations/demonstrations, election rallies and the like have been the order of the day almost throughout the pandemic period. This has in fact created a COVID-norms hypocrisy with various governments questioning normal gatherings, restricting public transport and entertainment industry to half-capacity operations, while allowing political campaigns/rallies with countless people, and as opposition political parties point out the Government of India has cancelled the winter session of Parliament due to the pandemic situation while doing nothing about the huge gatherings of farmers on the borders of the capital. Various state governments are set to reopen schools and colleges from the New Year Day. Besides, the winter season will intensify in January, and experts had long warned about possible increase in infections. Add to all these, the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations. Of course, the state of Karnataka has already banned such events, and we think all state governments should follow this example. New normal norms should be adhered to, at least in parts if not in full, till vaccination starts, and hopefully proves effective in preventing infections.