It seems impossible to guess when exactly the demand-supply equation of Covid vaccines will sport a healthy look in the country, the scene in front of the nation is of utter dismay and disgust. No sooner the states have started apprising the Centre that their stocks are on a near-end or are fully exhausted, phrases like “useless statements” and “creating panic among the people” are being thrown. Such reaction was expected since the professional planning and long-term vision needed for a gigantic exercise of inoculating a population size of nearly 130 cr within a span of 9-10 months was absent and hence the heated altercations are quite natural and there will be more in dats to come.
On June 21 when the vaccination ‘baton’ was retaken by the Centre, a sense of hope was generated that a centralised control will eliminate the glitches. However, as the daily and weekly data will corroborate, after a gradual decline, daily inoculation has now fallen to nearly 60% of what was seen during June 21-28 and with stocks depleting fast, the desperation of the states are unspeakable. Leaving aside for a while the June 21 ‘blockbuster’ when nearly 91 lakh doses were administered and taking into account the figures for the whole of this month, it can be found that on an average, 39,88,979 doses were administered. 
But, from July 1 till  July 11 , the daily average dropped to 33,88,751, which is not a small figure. 
These numbers  are not prepared by any foreign agency or NGO, but are from the Union Health Ministry itself.
Meanwhile, the US has said it will ship COVID-19 vaccines as donations as soon as a green signal comes from the Indian government. Reportedly, certain legal hurdles are still to be cleared by the Centre for this emergency import and it’s also not sure whether it will be accepted at all or not. 
However, for the larger good of the country’s people, rationality and not ‘image-consciousness’ must prevail. On Tuesday’s meeting with the Prime Minister, Arunachal Pradesh has asked for enhancing the state’s quota to utilise its full capacity of inoculating 15000 doses per day. Vis-à-vis the figure of vaccine quotas needed and asked by the mainland states, even after incorporating this enhanced portion, the one sought by Arunachal will still be a tiny one and as such the Centre must oblige accordingly.
Unless production of vaccines is drastically upscaled, the pandemonium will persist. It’s time to cooperate and not engage in war of words.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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