Economic Survey 2021-22: Vaccination critical for opening up economy

Vaccination should be treated as a macroeconomic indicator since it is not just a health response but is critical for opening up the economy, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said.

Vaccination should be treated as a macroeconomic indicator since it is not just a health response but is critical for opening up the economy, particularly the contact-intensive services, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said. 

While discussing the state of the economy at a time when India has fully vaccinated over 75 per cent of its adult population, the Survey said: “It is also essential to look at progress in vaccination as this is not just a health response but also a buffer against economic disruptions caused by repeated waves of the pandemic.” 

The Survey noted that two years into the pandemic, the global economy continues to be plagued by uncertainty, with resurgent waves of mutant variants, supply-chain disruptions, and a return of inflation in both advanced and emerging economies. In this context, vaccination has become an important macroeconomic indicator. 

Over the course of a year, India delivered 1.57 billion doses that covered 910 million people with at least one dose and 660 million with both doses. “The vaccination process for boosters and for the 15-18 years age group was also gathering pace at the time of writing,” it added.

The Survey highlighted that vaccination has been an integral pillar of the government’s comprehensive strategy for containment and management of the pandemic. Except for about 4-5 per cent of total doses, the rest have been administered at government Covid-19 vaccination centres.

The Survey said with India witnessing a resurgence in daily new cases since the end of December, marking the onset of Omicron variant-induced third wave, rapid progress in vaccination coverage and further strengthening of testing and health infrastructure assume critical importance in protecting lives and containing the spread of the infection. 

The average daily vaccination rate has increased fourfold from 1.9 million in May 2021 to 7.5 million as of January 16, 2022, according to the Survey. 

The government had allocated Rs 35,000 crore for Covid vaccination in the last year’s Budget. 

The Survey estimates that the combined central and state governments’ budgeted expenditure on the health sector reached 2.1 per cent of GDP in 2021-22, against 1.3 per cent in 2019-20. This is in line with the objective of the National Health Policy, 2017, to increase the government's health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025. 

Indian National Covid Vaccination Program, the Survey stressed, has not only supported production of Covid vaccines domestically, but it has also ensured free vaccines to its population, world’s second largest. 

According to the latest available data on CoWIN, since the start of the Covid vaccination drive on January 16 last year, India has administered 1.6 billion doses.