Covid Vaccine: The Drive That Needs A Push

In the 26 days after the launch of India’s vaccination programme on January 16, 700,000 people in the country were vaccinated against Covid.

- Sonali Acharjee

It was the fastest vaccination campaign in the world at the time. The US, known for having one of the best public healthcare facilities in the world, took two more days to reach the same number. Yet, after that, the numbers began to fall. India was vaccinating roughly 250,000 people per day, while the US hit 1.2 million per day. As on March 1, less than 1 percent of India’s total population had received the first dose of the Covid vaccine. It became clear that to achieve any kind of mass immunity and to break the chain of viral transmission, the vaccination rate had to pick up.

Several private sector lobbies wrote to the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW), assuring them that the only way forward was to open the vaccine drive to the free market. Profit incentives would drive them to vaccinate more people daily. So, on March 2, private players were drafted into the third phase of the programme.