Mandaviya releases reports highlighting India’s COVID vaccination programme

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently released two reports of the Institute for Competitiveness, part of the global network of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and affiliated to Harvard Business School, highlighting India’s vaccination journey.

The reports titled ‘COVID-19 – India’s Vaccine Development Story’ and ‘India’s COVID-19 Vaccination Administration Journey’ highlight the crucial aspects that have contributed to the success of India’s COVID-19 vaccine development and administration efforts, which includes manufacturing of indigenous vaccines, sturdy and timely procedures and protocols for approvals that ensured the safe administration of vaccines.

“I am delighted to launch this rigorous documentation of the massive efforts that have been undertaken by India, as the world’s largest vaccination drive. India’s scientific capacity demonstrated by the development of many indigenous vaccines, which have been approved by the WHO, our ability to trace, test, treat and contain the infection spread through a strong surveillance network; the solidarity displayed by our healthcare professionals, frontline workers and citizens, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, coupled with collaboration with states and other ministries, have made the COVID-19 vaccination drive successful,” said Mandaviya while launching the reports.

The reports acknowledge the significant challenges faced by the Indian government, of delivering and administering vaccines to a majority of 1.3 billion people of India who were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines; working with the state governments to ensure free and equitable distribution and effective management of vaccine eagerness along with addressing vaccine hesitancy that was prevalent in certain pockets of the country. The phased approach of India’s vaccination programme, prioritising populations of those who were in the greatest need, including the healthcare professionals, frontline workers, elders, and those with morbidities, have been highlighted as exemplars in these reports.

The reports also identify efforts towards training and skilling of healthcare professionals to manage adverse events during vaccination, digital scheduling of vaccination sessions and certification post-vaccination through the CoWin digital platform as global best practices that other countries can learn from India.

The measures taken to ensure social distancing and the efforts of all stakeholders and partners have been recognised. The documents also study the quality of vaccination sessions, cold-chain infrastructure and logistics performance, and real-time monitoring and feedback through control rooms that were set up at the national and sub-national levels, all for the smooth management of the vaccination process.

Reaffirming India’s success being embedded in science, Dr Michael Green, CEO, Social Progress Imperative, appreciated India’s response on every front. He said, “The vaccine is the most effective measure against the pandemic, and being preventive in nature, it has given hope and assurance to humanity in general that the spread of the pandemic can be arrested and the patients cured.”

Highlighting the crucial role played by technology during the pandemic, Dr Mark Esposito, Harvard University, stated that India, despite having such diversity, not only addressed the national crisis, but also generated the blueprint for the world to innovatively use technology to deal with the future public health crisis.

Dr Amit Kapoor, Chair, Institute for Competitiveness, appreciated India’s unique characteristic of blending science with culture and building solidarity in its communication strategy to remove vaccine hesitancy.