'Where are the vaccines?' Sitaram Yechury nonplussed at 'inoculation for all' announcement

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday dubbed the expansion of the COVID-19 vaccination drive to include those aged above 18 as a "PR gimmick". According to him, this announcement was meaningless unless there are enough vaccine doses available in the country.

While acknowledging that vaccination for all is absolutely necessary given the rise in novel coronavirus cases, he opined that the Centre should focus on procuring vaccines and use the budgeted amount of Rs.35,000 crore for enhancing vaccine production. 

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury remarked, "Why was the Public sector and private companies licensed to produce, not helped to ramp up production? Why were assured contracts not signed with companies? The Centre must make clear WHERE these vaccines will be procured from, by states so quickly?"

COVID-19 vaccination criteria expanded

Apart from COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, the DCGI accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V on April 12. Moreover, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In place of the local clinical trial requirement, the post-approval bridging clinical trial shall be mandated.

The first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for 7 days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further immunization programme within India. In a huge announcement earlier in the day, the Centre relaxed the age bar for vaccination from May 1 onwards and mentioned that vaccine manufacturers can supply 50 per cent of its doses to state governments and in the open market. The private hospitals shall have to procure their supplies of the COVID-19 vaccines exclusively from this quota. The private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price.

However, they will have to follow all protocols such as being captured on the CoWIN platform and linked to AEFI reporting. At the same time, vaccination shall continue at Government of India vaccination centres for healthcare and frontline workers and those above 45 years. Additionally, the Centre stated that it will allocate vaccine doses to the states from the remaining 50% quota based on factors such as the number of active cases, speed of administration and vaccine wastage. A total of 10,81,38,609 persons have been inoculated in India till now, 1,62,66,393 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.