Union government needs to implement multiple innovative ways to make vaccines easily accessible. decentralization of vaccination is paramount for increasing coverage in urban areas and reach rural India. There is a need to adopt strongly consider moving out of the hospital setup and take a lead from countries like the US, UK, Israel, and UAE, noted Frost and Sullivan.
On occasion of the National Vaccination Day observed annually on March 16, Frost & Sullivan discusses India’s need to adopt an innovative distribution model of ‘any-time any-where’ to create history.
There are various successful models which India can replicate such as drive-through centers, building temporary vaccination camps, roping in large pharmacy retail chains, and private healthcare clinics. Mobile health clinics can play a very important in rural areas, which lack the necessary health facilities. The drive-through vaccination and camps, followed aggressively by Israel and UAE have come in for rave reviews. The final frontier in the distribution model would be vaccination at home, said Surbhi Gupta, Industry Analyst, Transformational Health Practice, Frost & Sullivan.
While there is some light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the presence of Covid-19 vaccines, the job is far from complete. The distribution of the vaccine has its own challenges. However, India has prior experience with large-scale vaccination programs. India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), which immunizes approximately 26.7 million new-borns and 29 million pregnant women annually against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, is one of the largest public health programmes globally. It also achieved two major milestones, with the eradication of polio in 2014 and maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination in 2015, he added.
India launched the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination program on January 16, 2021, and has so far administered 25 million doses covering approximately 1.4% of the population compared to 34% in the UK and 29% in the US as of March 11, 2021. Also, India has so far exported approximately 58 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, which considering India’s manufacturing potential and the fact that the country fulfills 50% of the global demand for various types of vaccines, is certainly not where you would expect it to be. The Covid-19 vaccination rates and export figures clearly suggest India’s need to strengthen its game in distribution within the country and export vaccines to the rest of the world. But less than two months into the rollout, India is making significant progress, from roping in around 10,600 private facilities, providing vaccines 24×7 to easy registration, free vaccination for the poor, and affordable pricing.
Mobilization will increase convenience and in turn help overcome the reluctance to take the vaccine. This would not only relieve the stress from the limited private and government hospitals and avoid over-crowding but will also prevent delays in other health services. This would not be easy considering the supply-chain requirements and supply-demand mismatch at the vaccination sites. However, the government needs to plan and take steps in order to maximize coverage and minimize wastage, said Gupta.
