Ranchi: At the current pace of the inoculation drive, it will take about 31 years for the last eligible person in Jharkhand to receive an anti-Covid vaccine. At present, the average rate of vaccination is 2,957 persons a day and the drive is supposed to be conducted four days a week. Considering around 1.96 crore people who are in the age and health bracket to receive the vaccine, it will take another 6,560 days for the drive to be complete. With the schedule of four days a week, it translates into 31 years.
Health experts believe though the vaccination coverage will be spruced up in the weeks to come, too much hurry can be a cause of worry. “We are dealing with a pandemic, a new virus and a new vaccine. Things should not be hurried,” said Dr Devesh Kumar, head department of preventive social medicine at Rims.
He said it is important that officials are careful about adverse effects. “We have to balance out the risk and benefits. We are keeping a close watch on the people being vaccinated and are prepared to redesign our course of drive and treatment through observation of the outcome,” he said.
In general, while fighting with any disease, experts in public health target vaccinating around 80% of the population for herd immunity. Drive against polio was taken up in 1995 with a similar objective. “It is different from the Covid pandemic as adult population is being targeted and even 50% immunization can yield definitive results,” Dr Praveen Kumar Karn, state head Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said.
According to records of Unique Identification Authority of India, the population of Jharkhand was recorded 3,85,93,948 as on May 31, 2020 and according to figures of the Election Commission, the share 2,30,58,035 were of voting age – above 18 – as of December 2019. These figures indicate that 1.55 crore people (41% of the population) are below 18 and do not qualify for the vaccine.
The contraindication associated with the vaccines also disallow pregnant and lactating women. According to National Health Mission around 9.63 lakh women were registered as pregnant this year while a number almost double this figure is of the lactating women thereby excluding around 28.25 lakh women corresponding to 7.31% of the population from the vaccine doses.
Thus, with 48% population being excluded only 52% are eligible for the vaccination. “We have identified around 99 lakh people as priority group for the vaccination drive and sooner of later they would be given the doses,” Karn said.