Panel to fix criteria of people with comorbidities who will get prioritised for Covid vaccines

NEW DELHI: The government has set up a committee to define the clinical criteria based on which it can be determined people with which comorbidities and at what stage should be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccination.

The Centre has earlier said that apart from all people above 50, even the younger ones with comorbidities, will form the third priority group for Covid-19 vaccines -- the first two priority groups being healthcare and frontline workers.

It has also announced that about 30 crore people -- one crore each of healthcare and frontline workers -- and about 27 crores of those above 50 and people under 50 with comorbidities are estimated to be immunized against Covid-19 in the first phase.

While the database of the earlier two groups and first sub group of the third priority group is largely ready, the government is still to decide who will comprise the comorbidity group.

“A committee comprising of about 12 experts from various specialties including cancer, kidney, lungs, heart, etc has been constituted for this purpose and it is actively working and we are expecting their report very soon—may be in a few days,” said V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog in a press briefing on the Covid-19 outbreak response.

He added that if anyone has an underlying condition which leads to mortality risk due to Covid-19, that’s a criterion for entitlement to Covid-19 vaccine and it has been separated from the other group under which anyone above 50 with or without comorbidity will get the vaccine.

Paul, who also heads the Covid-19 National Task Force and the National Expert Group for Vaccine Administration on Covid-19, said that the committee will also explain how the ascertainment has to be done.

“They will define the criteria based on which certificates will be issued to individuals who will be prioritized for vaccines,” he said.

The committee has also been asked to keep in mind the seriousness of the disease. For example, while hypertension is prevalent in about 30 % of the adult population in the country -- all those with mild hypertension may not qualify for the Covid-19 vaccine.

“But others with severe hypertension may need the vaccine—this is a technical area and is in the domain of those in clinical and epidemiological sciences and experts are working on it,” said the official.

“We will come forth with their recommendations and view of the NEGVAC after the report is made available to us,” Paul added.