India recently achieved a super milestone of inoculating almost 82.7 lakh persons in a single day. Notably, the new phase of vaccination from June 21 last has adopted the ‘Modi-fied’ vaccine policy of the country. The union government has been stretching all out to vaccinate as many people as possible to achieve herd immunity faster, given its large population. In a way, it might also be salvaging its lost image after the failures of the past which aggravated the second wave in the first place. The government had to come up with an alternative vaccine policy after its erstwhile policy was criticised by the larger section of people all across the globe. But will the country be able to maintain a consistent performance in the vaccination drive? Many states still reel under vaccine shortage and a few of them still have a higher vaccine wastage ratio. The prime minister may have given the ‘Modi-fied’ policy which looks and sounds great on paper but will it work at ground level – is something we will have to wait and watch.
On the other hand, if the experts are to be believed, India is still way behind in achieving any concrete milestone in terms of the pandemic. Yes, the number of new cases are coming down eventually, but many point that the country is staring right into the third wave which might even hit the nation as early as July. Impediments are still felt under Modified vaccine policy, needing further modification at the earliest to achieve the target of vaccinating all within the shortest possible time. As per the latest vaccine policy, the union government will procure 75 percent of the vaccine stock from the open market and distribute it to the states for administering free of cost to everyone of age 18 years and above. Interestingly, the earlier policy was decentralized from May 1 allegedly in a bid to absolve the union government’s responsibility and transfer it to the fund-starved states. This was openly criticised by many and even the judiciary had to step in. And hence the nation got its latest vaccination policy in which the union government shall return to procuring and distributing the states with the vaccine.
Having said this, the record vaccination under the new policy framework definitely shows the hard work put in by the front-line warriors and professionals engaged in the vaccination drive. This temperament and optimism are the need of the hour for India to return to normalcy. Many states are gradually easing up restrictions as the positivity rate dips further. The most important responsibility of the union government led by Narendra Modi would be to support the drive constantly and keep a steady supply of vaccines flowing to the states. The respective states, on the other hand, must work closely with the union government in inoculating its residents in numbers and fast. Both the union and the state governments irrespective of their political and party affiliations must come together and ensure that the final victory is ours in the war against Covid-19.