Global reports hail India's Covid vaccination drive

New Delhi, February 23

Two newly published global reports backed by Harvard Business School have acknowledged the robustness of the Indian Covid-19 vaccine drive and the major challenges the government faced in delivering and administering vaccines to a majority of its 1.3 billion people.

Released by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today, reports of the Institute for Competitiveness (part of the global network of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and affiliated to Harvard Business School), hail the Centre’s initiative of working with the state governments to ensure free and equitable distribution and effective management of vaccine eagerness along with addressing vaccine hesitancy prevalent in certain pockets.

Centre’s initiative

• Reports of the Institute for Competitiveness highlight all crucial aspects that have contributed to the success of India’s vaccine development & administration efforts
• It mentions the scientific and phased approach in covering beneficiaries, starting with frontline workers and then expanding it to cover all adults

They say India aligned itself with the world and entered the Covid vaccine manufacturing race on March 11, 2020, with the ICMR and Bharat Biotech announcing a partnership to develop an indigenous vaccine.

Titled “Covid-19 — India’s Vaccine Development Story” and “India’s Covid-19 Vaccination Administration Journey”, the reports highlight all crucial aspects that have contributed to the success of India’s vaccine development and administration efforts, including manufacturing of indigenous vaccines, sturdy and timely procedures and protocols for approvals that ensured the safe administration of vaccination. It also mentions the scientific and phased approach in covering beneficiaries starting with health and frontline workers and the elderly with comorbidities and then expanding to cover all adults and eventually 15 to 18-year-olds.

He said, “This documentation records the world’s largest vaccination drive — India’s scientific capacity demonstrated by the development of indigenous vaccines; our ability to trace, test, treat and contain the infection spread.”