Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech to the nation on Monday evening was eagerly awaited by all with the chief expectation that measures that have become highly necessary now to address the overwhelming disarray over Covid vaccination might be announced. Thankfully, some major announcements pertaining to it have been made and from June 21 onwards the Centre will provide vaccines to all adults in the country free of cost. The reshift to centralisation of the vaccination rollout has been a crying need since it has been proven by now that devolution of power to the states in terms of procurement of vaccines directly from manufacturers, within the country or overseas was posing an array of practical problems and the very intention of accelerating the speed was facing back-to-back stumbling blocks. It's unfortunate that a month or so has been wasted in the 'experiment' resulting in a snail's pace of administering of doses that in turn has definitely delayed the target of attaining herd immunity. It needs to be observed how the new process gets implementation and more particularly, 'lessons' have been learnt or not.

 

To arrive at the reasons for this shift, it's necessary to recall the circumstances. To tell facts, the liberalised vaccination policy earned scathing criticisms from all quarters. The simmering discontent among people in long queues in front of vaccination centres where days after days it had been the story of ' out of stock' was an ubiquitous feature across the country. The medical fraternity having the most updated knowledge of Covid development and the inoculation process was the first to ring alarm bells and subsequently the Supreme Court also raised several pertinent issues. Its prima facie observation of the mess covered all the essential points and in a severe reprimand of the Centre it termed the paid vaccination policy for the 18-44 age bracket as "arbitrary and irrational". The states too, expressing their inability to shoulder the responsibility solo, sought Central intervention. It's pertinent to mention here that many vaccine makers straightaway told the states pleading for stocks that they deal only with the Government of India. Amid the war of words, where ego also played a destructive role, the first-hand sufferers were common people. If dose 1 has fortunately been taken, the next concern that followed was about the 2nd one, whether it will be available at the correct time or not.

 

However, no shift in policies will be result-yielding if the supply level of vaccines remains as it is today- utterly inadequate. Assurance has come that it will be taken care of. It's only 3.3% of the population that has been fully inoculated as on June 6. The December 2021 national target of full Covid vaccination will remain elusive if stocks continue to remain 'unhealthy'.