‘COVID discipline during festivals key to pandemic control,’ says Dr. N.K. Arora

Availability of vaccines, emergence of new variants, health infrastructure will decide course of pandemic, says member of India’s COVID-19 task force

 , a key member of India’s COVID-19 task force, says long-term strategic planning helped the country produce vaccines and achieve immunisation milestone of covering 100 crore people.

In our country, there are over 94 crore adults who are eligible to receive vaccines. In several states, one dose has been given to 100% of the adult population. With India’s current vaccine delivery capacity and the vaccine production and availability status, we can give another 70 to 80 crores in the next three months.

The future course of the pandemic in our country is dependent on five things. One, how effectively people follow COVID-appropriate-behaviour. Second, the availability of vaccines. Third, the percentage of the population exposed to natural infection during the second wave; fourth, the emergence of any new variants in coming weeks and months; and fifth is the preparedness of the health system for any future upsurge of cases.