Covid Vaccine Distribution in India

India recently announced the approval of two vaccines – a) Oxford – Astra Zeneca & b) Bharat Biotech  – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55520658 . The big challenge now facing India is, how to vaccinate 1.3 billion people in the shortest time possible.

The numbers are staggering – both these vaccines are double doses and hence 2.6 billion doses need to be administered. Even if 3 million doses are administered a day, it will take over 2 years for the entire population to get vaccinated. The US, one of the first countries to start the vaccine rollout, is administering around 250,000 doses per day and the plan is to get to 1 million per day – https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-us-vaccine-rollout-timeline-million-people-per-day-2021-1

While India has a good track record on vaccination, the infrastructure is primarily to vaccinate children (for example – no adult flu shots like in the US). Over 27 million new-borns are targeted annually for immunization under Mission Indradhanush, though the coverage is around 80% and varies across states – https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/immunization. For Covid-19 vaccination, at 3 million per day, we are talking over 90 million per month!

In Aug, 2020, Nandan Nilekani, the Chairman of Infosys, had written an article on how to go about this mammoth task – https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/how-to-secure-india-against-covid-19/story-0HGNCAvDfFHtG9O8CBmDqL.html. He talked about building a vaccination infrastructure at scale(over 100,000 points), use Aaadhar to authenticate; issue digital vaccination certificates and have a workforce of over 200,000 people for this job.

The Indian government(GOI) hasn’t yet published a detailed plan on the vaccine rollout – there is mention of 300 million people being vaccinated by July https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/centre-draws-plan-for-vaccine-roll-out/story-8etCcg99dqlqnX6ysTVjOJ.html. The GOI will be working closely with each state government in the roll-out. In my view, the following are needed to make the roll-out a success:

• Leverage Aadhaar to reach out to citizens and ensure that everyone is getting the vaccine dose – issue digital vaccination certificates
• Involve private enterprises in the roll-out – private hospitals, clinics & diagnostic centers
• Set-up dedicated vaccination centers across the cities – this will also give employment to thousands of people who are currently affected by the pandemic
• Leverage private groceries for strengthening the supply chain including storage
• Have a clear and transparent plan on who gets vaccinated when – jumping the queue should be treated harshly. Also ensure that disenfranchised societies don’t lose out
• Address vaccine misinformation by being very transparent – time to leverage social media especially Whatsapp positively?

This is a grand challenge that India faces, but by planning and executing well, India can pull this off.