NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is struggling to convince its health and front-line workers to take a controversially approved self-produced COVID-19 vaccine with no late-stage efficacy data, government data showed dashboard .cowin.gov.in on Thursday, days before a wider deployment.
The country has the second highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world after the United States, with cases increasing recently as mask use decreases and states have facilitated social distancing measures. Lack of confidence in a country of its own vaccine could prevent India from reaching the target of vaccinating 300 million of its 1.3 billion people in August.
India has vaccinated more than 10.5 million health and frontline workers since it began its vaccination campaign on January 16th.
But only 1.2 million, or about 11%, have taken COVAXIN, the locally developed vaccine from Bharat Biotech, while the remaining 9.4 million have used the AstraZeneca-licensed vaccine, according to the online platform Co -Win government used to track vaccination momentum.
The federal government of India has so far ordered 10 million doses of COVAXIN and 21 million doses from Oxford University / AstraZeneca. The government says it has received at least 5.5 million doses of COVAXIN.
“It’s all because of the initial discussion about how (COVAXIN) was just an experimental vaccine, how it hadn’t completed the phase 3 trial,” said Dr Subhash Salunkhe, who advises the Maharashtra state government on the vaccination strategy.
“These things created doubts in people’s minds, which resulted in less acceptance. Availability is not a concern at this time. “
However, India’s Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday attributed the lower absorption of COVAXIN to Bharat Biotech’s limited production capacity compared to that of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer. world, which causes AstraZeneca to shoot for low- and middle-income countries.
“We have found that, in proportion to the amount of vaccine available to us, the intake of (COVAXIN) is quite satisfactory,” he said at a press conference.
His ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the latest figures showing that only about 12% of the doses ordered had been administered.
Earlier this month, Chhattisgarh, an opposition-ruled state of 32 million people, told the federal government it would not use COVAXIN until its effectiveness in a final trial could be demonstrated. Epidemiologists and public health experts have also criticized the approval of COVAXIN as a rush.
Bharat Biotech has said the trial efficacy data of about 26,000 volunteers will come out soon. The company, along with India’s drug regulator, says the vaccine is safe and effective based on initial and intermediate studies.
Bharat Biotech did not comment immediately on the slightest absorption of his vaccine.
CASES THAT ARISE
The government is trying to speed up vaccinations as cases have increased, especially in Maharashtra, west and east of Kerala, possibly as trains and suburban schools have reopened.
Mask wear and social distancing have also largely disappeared, with major events such as international cricket matches being played in front of tens of thousands of spectators barely following the rules of COVID-19.
India reported 16,738 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the highest daily jump in a month, according to health ministry data on Thursday, bringing the total to 11.05 million.
More than half of the new cases were in Maharashtra, India’s richest city and its financial capital, Mumbai, which reported a record 8,807 cases on Wednesday.
Deaths across the country increased by 138, also the highest in a month, to 156,705.
(Interactive graphic monitoring of the global spread of coronavirus: here)
Reports of Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru and Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Bombay; Edited by Clarence Fernandez and Christian Schmollinger