India Coronavirus Dispatch: Covaxin not for people on blood thinners

Centre plans to accelerate vaccine drive, Delhi near herd immunity, Indian industry's key role in roll-out-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

17 per cent of Indians between ages 30 and 69 on blood thinners, cannot take Covaxin

At least 17 per cent of Indians between the ages of 30 and 69 years cannot be administered Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, as the inoculant is not meant for people who use blood thinners, according to a report in ThePrint.

Some 17.4 per cent Indians are on aspirin, a commonly used blood thinner, according to the National Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring Survey 2017-18. Blood thinners are drugs that impede blood coagulation, both within blood vessels and in case of bleeding. Covaxin’s fact-sheet says that people who are on blood thinners or those who have bleeding disorders cannot take it. The fact-sheet for the Serum Institute of India's Covisheld asks potential recipients to inform their doctors in advance if they are on such medication, the report said.

However, Aspirin is not the only blood thinner in the market. The total number of Indians on such medication could be higher than the 17.4 per cent aspirin users, the survey indicates. Read more here

Centre plans to accelerate vaccination rollout

The union government is ready to speed up the first phase of the vaccination rollout by ramping up vaccination centres and allowing walk-in vaccinations for those registered on the Co-Win digital platform, V K Paul, NITI Aayog member for health told The Hindu.

India's vaccine stock is enough to inoculate the targeted numbers in the first phase, Paul told The Hindu. The government is also working to ensure optimal use of resources and keeping wastage of vaccines as low as possible. The central government rolled out one of the world's largest vaccination drives on January 16. Over 2 million health and frontline workers have been inoculated so far. Read more here

Delhi near herd immunity against Covid-19: Sero Survey suggests

More than half of those surveyed in the fifth round of serological surveillance carried out in Delhi have developed antibodies, according to a report in The Indian Express. 

This is the highest seroprevalence found in surveys carried out by the Delhi government since the start of the pandemic. According to experts, this indicates the city is moving towards achieving herd immunity. In most cities, seroprevalence studies suggest antibodies in about 30-40 per cent of respondents.

As the caseload has been declining over the past four months, health experts believe a much higher proportion of the population might have already been exposed to the virus. The results of the Delhi serosurvey lends evidence to this, the report said. Read more here

Opinion: Indian industry has a key role to play in the rollout

Indian industry is gearing up to participate in India's massive efforts to vaccinate potentially over a billion people, said T V Narendran, president-designate of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in an opinion piece for The Indian Express.

Narendran said the Indian industry and businesses have a key role to play in supporting the vaccination programme. The private sector can provide support right from the first stage of the rollout meant for frontline and healthcare workers, to the later stages, especially in expanding the coverage to more demographics. Parallelly, the Indian industry can provide constant inputs and recommendations at all stages of the programme. Read more here

Opinion: How Covid-19 spread widely in India

In an opinion piece for ThePrint, Sanjiv Agarwal, the founder of the Good Governance India Foundation takes a look at some of the factors that led to Covid spreading widely in India.

First, urban slum communities were ideal places for the coronavirus to spread quickly even during the lockdown. A large number of migrant workers trapped in these slums could have only meant exposing them quicker to the virus. Second, life didn’t stop during the lockdown. ‘Essential’ services had to continue, including the delivery of pizzas and burgers. Third, over time, people felt Covid-19 was not as risky as it was made out to be initially. Most of the early deaths were due to institutional quarantine facilities or hospitals that themselves became hotspots, Agarwal said. Read more here