Vaccine supply, not CoWIN a problem for rural vaccination drive, says health official: Report

Currently walk-ins are only allowed for those aged 45 and above, but there have been reports of some centres insisting on CoWIN appointments for senior citizens as well.

Moneycontrol News
May 21, 2021 / 03:04 PM IST

Elderly people leave after receiving COVID-19 vaccines in Mumbai, March 8. (Image: AP)

A government health official has said that walk-ins for vaccinations will be allowed in all rural areas once supply of vaccines “satisfies” demand. The statement comes amid constant criticism against mandatory CoWIN registration to avail vaccination.

There has been much debate around the exclusionary factor in making India’s vaccination drive tech dependent – which impacts those without smartphones, those less tech-literate, those in rural areas without internet connections and language barrier created due to limited options for the CoWIN platform.

The Centre has made CoWIN registration and appointment mandatory for vaccine-takers in the 18-44 age group. Vaccinations for this group was opened on May 1, but many states have only partially started the exercise or delayed it due to unavailability of vaccines.

Currently walk-ins are only allowed for those aged 45 and above, but there have been reports of some centres insisting on CoWIN appointments for senior citizens as well.

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A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

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RS Sharma, chairperson of the empowered committee for administration of COVID-19 vaccine told The Economic Times that they “want to allow walk-ins” for the rural population, but “cannot do it right now”.

“What is the guarantee that if we allow walk-ins in rural areas, people from the cities will not surround those areas? Currently, 57 percent of Indians who have been vaccinated have walked-in. The issue is with vaccine availability not CoWin,” he said.

Total vaccinations in the country have crossed 19.18 crore as of May 20, per the Union Health Ministry data.

Sharma argued that the CoWIN platform “helps ensure people receive both doses of the same vaccine at the right interval and also be given digital vaccination certificates”.

Citizens have however on social media described the experience of booking slots via the platform as “harrowing” and meme-d the process as “Hunger Games”. Many also noted that tech savvy individuals stood a better chance of nabbing a slot leaving those in rural areas – and even the urban poor with less access to the healthcare.

In a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, digital rights think tank Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in) pointed out that only 40 percent of Indians have access to the internet and smartphones and the country also suffers lack of digital literacy.

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Moneycontrol News
TAGS: #coronavirus #CoWIN #Health #India #vaccine
first published: May 21, 2021 03:04 pm