By the end of the year, India will be self-sufficient in terms of vaccines. Already, local manufacturers such as Serum Institute of India that makes Covishield and Bharat Biotech that manufactures Covaxin, have scaled up their production, Director of AIIMS Randeep Guleria has said.
The government has also given its nod to other manufacturers such as Zydus Cadila and Moderna, to market their vaccines. It is now up to them to study and work out how to market them and talks are also on with Pfizer and others, he has added.
Mr. Guleria, who was here in connection with a programme on Saturday, told The Hindu that at least 50 crore people had received at least one vaccine dose, and by year-end at least 70% of the population was likely to be inoculated.
According to him, as per the sero survey, about 60% of the population had developed antibodies, be it by vaccination or naturally after having suffered from COVID-19.
‘Normalcy by next year’
“Though the virus will continue to trouble us for some more time, by mid next year things should settle down and we may get over the ‘new normal’ and come close to pre-COVID ‘normal’,” Mr. Guleria opined.
But it all would depend on the effect and speed of vaccination and people following the COVID-19 protocols.
On the presumed third wave, he said the second wave was still to settle down as the country was recording about 35,000 to 40,000 cases every day, and the third wave might set in any time, following the unlock. However, the third wave might be a milder one with fewer deaths and less hospitalisation.
He also cautioned about the possible threat of virus mutation and its capabilities to develop an immune escape mechanism. “We need to strengthen our surveillance, testing capabilities, genome sequencing, containment policy and monitoring and containing the hotspots,” he said.
Impact on children
On the vulnerability of children during the third wave, he said, “Children are susceptible with the opening up of the lockdowns, but at the same time study suggests that they may not be affected that much, as their immune system will protect them. Only children with underlying diseases may be vulnerable and for the rest it may pass off as mild infections.”
Bharat Biotech and some other companies were in the final stages of developing a vaccine for children and that should complete the vaccine cycle, he said.
Delta Plus variant
On a few Delta Plus cases surfacing in the country, he said the numbers were very few and they were being monitored. Genome sequencing was being done to ascertain the number of cases. Delta Plus was more dangerous than the Delta variant, as it belonged to the same lineage. “We are also studying its mortality factor. Study is also on to change the vaccine designs, to suit different variants,” said Prof. Randeep Guleria.
