Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that the target of the government is to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine covering approximately 25 crore people by July 2021. Responding to questions from his social media followers on the fourth episode of ‘Sunday Samvaad’, Harsh Vardhan said that there is a high-level expert body going into all aspects of the coronavirus vaccines.
“Our rough estimate and the target would be to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses covering approximately 25 crore people by July 2021,” he said. Harsh Vardhan also said that the central government is working to ensure there is a fair and equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines, once they are ready.
“Our utmost priority is how to ensure vaccine for each and everybody in the country,” Harsh Vardhan said, adding, “Topmost priority in coronavirus immunisation to be given to frontline healthcare workers.”
The list of frontline health workers will include both government as well as private sector doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary staff, ASHA workers, surveillance officers and many other occupational categories who are involved in tracing, testing and treatment of patients.
The minister assured a respondent that there would be no diversion or black-marketing. “Coronavirus vaccines will be distributed as per pre-decided priority and in a programmed manner. To ensure transparency and accountability, details of the entire process will be shared in the coming months.”
Stating that adverse side-effects developing after vaccination are common, Harsh Vardhan said that reactions such as pain at the injection site, mild fever and redness, anxiety-related such as palpitations, syncope or fainting and that these events are transient, self-limiting and do not affect the protective response of the vaccine.
Harsh Vardhan urged all people to follow coronavirus guidelines during the festival season. He also appealed to be responsible citizens. He also urged “each and every one of you to take ownership at your own levels: personal, society, RWA, colony, and office”.
Meanwhile, experts working in the field of vaccine development said that an effective coronavirus vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall of 2021.
“Experts in our survey offered forecasts on vaccine development that were generally less optimistic than the timeline of early 2021 offered by US public officials,” Jonathan Kimmelman, a professor at McGill University, said in a statement.
“In general they seem to believe that a publicly available vaccine next summer is the best-case scenario with the possibility that it may take until 2022,” said Kimmelman. Many experts also believe that there may be some false starts before an effective vaccine is available.