Covid-19 vaccination: India may have won a major battle, says Eco Survey

97% of the country's eligible beneficiaries have been given at least one dose, while 90% have got two doses

India has administered more than 2.2 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses across the country, covering 97 per cent of the eligible beneficiaries with at least one dose, and around 90 per cent with two doses, the Economic Survey 2022-23 said, adding that India ‘may have won a major battle’.

India’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme, the world’s largest vaccination initiative, began on January 16, 2021, initially aiming to cover the country's adult population in the shortest possible time. The programme was expanded to include all persons aged 12 years and above, and for the precautionary dose, all persons aged 18 years or more.

Vaccination for the 12-14 age group was started on March 16, 2022, followed by the precautionary dose for the 18-59 age group, which started on 10 April 2022. Also, 224 million precautionary doses have been administered, the Survey added.

India’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme is the world’s largest vaccination programme, the Survey noted.

It added that the introduction of Covid19 vaccines entailed challenges like development of new Covid-19 vaccines, training of more than 260,000 vaccinators and 480,000 other vaccination team members, optimum utilisation of available vaccine, difficult-to reach population, and the need to ensure all essential health services along with scaling up of vaccination programme.

In addition, logistical challenges such as storage and decentralised distribution of vaccines across 29,000 cold chain points, augmenting cold chain capacity, and developing IT platform for registering the beneficiaries and vaccine service delivery, were also noticed.

Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, the Union Government focussed on scaling up expenditure on health infrastructure by investing in grass root health institutions and ramping up Health and Wellness Centers in rural and urban areas; setting up critical care hospital blocks in all districts; and strengthening the laboratory network and surveillance by integrated public health laboratories in all districts and blocks and public health units to manage pandemics.

“The State Governments also took various measures to fight the pandemic. This was complemented by digital infrastructure through Co-WIN for mass vaccination and e-Sanjeevani for telemedicine to reach the last mile,” the 2022-23 Survey said.

In the last few months, the caseload has subsided significantly, where the active caseload is below 4,000 and daily new cases recorded below 300 (as of December 29, 2022). “India may have won a major battle. India is one of the countries which have learned the most from the pandemic to create a mechanism for protecting its citizens and economy,” it said.