Public Health's Private Problems

THE PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATE SECTOR VACCINATION CENTRES REMAINS UNDERWHELMING— DESPITE IMPROVEMENTS IN SUPPLY. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SCALE UP THEIR NUMBERS?

- SONALI ACHARJEE

Since May 2021, the pace of vaccination has steadily gathered steam. In July, India achieved the target set by the Union minister for health and family welfare Mansukh Mandaviya for the month—135 million Covid vaccine doses, with an average of 4.3 million daily doses. June, which saw 119 million doses administered, had also been a milestone for the vaccination programme with a 96 per cent increase in the number of doses administered in May, when an average of 1.9 million doses were given a day.

As of August 3, a total of 474 million doses had been administered in India, with 369 million adults having received at least one dose and 104 million fully vaccinated. There is, however, still a long way to go. India’s adult population is estimated to be around 940 million, as per the 2011 Census, which means 1,880 million doses are needed to fully vaccinate all. To complete the target of 100 per cent adult vaccination by the end of 2021, we now need to hit a rate of 9.3 million doses per day.

“We will not reach any kind of mass immunity without vaccines,” says P. Srinath Reddy, chairman of the Public Health Foundation of India. “People need to be given affordable, accessible channels to vaccines and be assured of their protection and safety.” The Union government has assured an improved supply of vaccines in the months ahead. As important is delivery. The government had set aside 25 per cent of the vaccine manufacturers’ production for private hospitals, but the decision to include the private sector to both pickup speed and increase the spread of vaccination hasn’t yielded the desired results yet.

The underutilisation problem