Coronavirus: Centre advises states to follow British model of containment and aggressive vaccination

Even as the Covid-19 tally in the country makes new records every single day, the central government has advised the state governments to focus on stricting local movement of people and vaccinating aggressively in addition to bringing in more health workers and doctors from other states. Top sources who are monitoring the Covid19 situation told the Indian Express that states have been shown the example of the United Kingdom which had adopted a similar strategy of containment and aggressive vaccination in December last year when the new Covid-19 variant had led to a spike in the number of cases in London and other parts of the country.

A prominent source told the Indian Express that excessive reliance on vaccination even when there is a large rise in infection numbers might turn out to be dangerous hence local containment, surveillance and testing equally need to be prioritised. The source further said that simply looking at UK success in terms of the country being able to vaccinate 2/3rd of its population would be fallacious as many research papers from the UK have pointed out that increased vaccination under strict lockdown is what controlled the graph of the virus.

Another challenge which has emerged before the authorities is large-scale fatigue among health workers during the second Covid-19 wave. The sources said that states have been advised to adopt a roster system and give at least an off to doctors and nurses. The states have also been told to utilise the funds under the National Health Mission to arrange for doctors on contract from other states. Giving an example of most North Eastern states which have hired a large number of nurses from Odisha and West Bengal for a year contract, the source said other states should try to follow the example.

The centre on its part has tried to expedite the process of procuring other foreign Coronavirus vaccines by fast-tracking the application of foreign vaccine manufacturers and issuing them license for emergency use within a deadline of three days.