Day-1 of free boosters: Citizens queue up to get jabs ahead of festivals

States start compiling need for additional doses, Centre seeks 50 mn doses from GAVI

On Friday afternoon, a long queue of people braving the scorching Chennai heat was seen outside Kelambakkam Health Centre, keeping the officials at its vaccination unit busy.

What was driving the long queue in an otherwise vaccine-hesitant state of Tamil Nadu, according to one official at the center was: “All are from one single company.”

A batch of over 50 people from Chennai-based Super Auto Forge, the largest manufacturer of cold and warm forging parts in India, constituted most of the serpentine queue. “Taking the third dose is not compulsory. However, officials are urging the staff to come for vaccination to ensure their own safety, that of their families and of the workplace as well,” said a staff member in the queue who requested anonymity.

The Kelambakkam Health Centre is not an exception. State health department officials say the response on Friday was encouraging. P Senthil, Tamil Nadu health secretary, that till now, about 2 per cent of those aged 18-59 had taken their shots, and the coverage was slightly higher among the 60-year-plus group.

“We are getting a good response and are planning mega vaccination camps on July 24, and subsequently every two weeks. We have also opened 2,590 permanent vaccination centres in all government medical college hospitals and other health centres. They will function round the clock. We have called for the setting up of special camps in office complexes and industrial complexes, so that people can make full use of the 75-day window,” Kumar said. Other states are gearing up too. Madhya Pradesh will hold a campaign between July 21-25.

Kumar said the Centre would bear the cost of the free vaccines and provide them to state governments.

Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a meeting on Friday morning with the chief secretaries of all states to dwell on the 75-day free precaution dose campaign. Ninety seven million doses of Covid-19 vaccines are lying with states at the moment.

States have started collecting data on their vaccine requirements. State Immunisation officer of Maharashtra, Sachin Desai said they have asked all districts to compile the demand for additional doses to run these 75-day-long free boosters for all adults. “We will share this data with the Centre as soon as it is compiled. We will need more vaccines soon,” Desai said.

Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai saw an enthusiastic response too, despite the rains. On a day when the city’s schools were shut on account of the downpour, there were queues outside vaccination centres in Dadar.

“People would take this opportunity to get their precaution dose ahead of the Ganpati festivities. Since it's free now, many would not hesitate to come out. We expect a better turnout during the weekend. Around 104 government CVCs were functional today,” an official at the Mumbai civic body.

Meanwhile, anticipating rising demand for vaccine shots, the Union Health Ministry has asked global vaccine alliance GAVI to supply 50 million of the allocated 100 million doses of Covishield to India under the COVAX facility free of cost, agencies reported.

PTI reported that Prakash Kumar Singh, director (government and regulatory affairs) at Serum Institute of India (SII), had written a letter to the health ministry in April for use of 100 million doses of Covishield offered free of cost by GAVI.

The 75-day drive is also likely to significantly reduce vaccine wastage in India. Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which constitutes about 80 per cent of India’s overall Covid-19 vaccination, will expire in September as it has a shelf life of nine months and the last batches were made in December. Serum Institute of India (SII), the maker of Covishield, stopped producing the vaccine after it accumulated a huge stockpile at its Pune plant. According to some estimates, SII will waste nearly 200 million doses of Covishield by September.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, on the other hand, has a 12-month shelf life. The company is sitting on stocks of about 50 million doses, and finished supplying the tendered amounts to the Centre in the first quarter of 2022.

Offtake of boosters among the 18-59 years age group has been discouraging so far. Data shows that only around 1 per cent of the eligible adults in this age group, excluding healthcare and frontline workers, have taken their third paid shot at private vaccination centres. India’s precaution dose coverage for all, including senior citizens, healthcare and frontline workers, was around 8 per cent of the eligible population of 640 million as of July 13 (estimated considering a six-month gap between the second dose and the precautionary dose).

India opened precaution shots for all adults on April 10. Earlier, it had allowed senior citizens and healthcare and frontline workers to take the booster shot from January 10. Last week, the government also reduced the gap between the second and third doses to six months from nine months.

At a meeting on Thursday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan urged states and Union territories to hold special vaccination camps on various Yatra routes, as well office complexes, railway stations, schools and colleges to administer precaution doses of the Covid vaccine to all aged 18 and above.

They were advised to hold special vaccination camps on the routes of Char Dham Yatra (Uttarakhand), Amarnath Yatra (Jammu and Kashmir), Kanwar Yatra (all states and UTs of north India), and major melas and congregations. Bhushan advised them to operationalise special workplace vaccination camps at big office complexes (public and private), industrial establishments, railway stations, interstate bus stations, in schools and colleges etc.

With Inputs from PTI