JOIN USIndia to vaccinate 70% 'critical mass' by mid-March 2022: SBI report
India will be able to achieve the critical mass of 70 per cent population coverage with twin doses of Covid-19 vaccine by mid-March next year, according to a report by the State Bank of India (SBI).
In India, in the last 50 days, the daily cases have averaged 3.0 per 1 lakh population, while daily deaths average was 0.6 per 1 million.
India has fully vaccinated 9% of its total population -- 12% of the eligible population.
Currently, India’s vaccination 7-day moving average is around 45 lakh and 43% of the eligible population stands vaccinated with the first dose and 12% with the second dose.
"If we go by the present vaccination rate of around 45 lakh per day, the critical mass (70%) may be covered by 1st dose: end of November 2021 and 2nd dose: March 15, 2022,” according to the special research report from State Bank of India’s Economic Research Department – “Covid-19: Vaccinate, vaccinate & vaccinate!”.
India’s cumulative Covid-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the 52 crore mark and till now more than 54.04 crore vaccine doses provided to States/UTs.
The report authored by Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, SBI, states that the latest nationwide serological survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) showed 67.6% in the age group of 6 and above having Covid antibodies.
"Different states have different levels of seropositivity. Combining it with the population with double doses, the estimated susceptible population for our sample 14 states which includes Maharashtra, Kerala among others, comes at 20.4 crore," it said
The report noted that there is an urgent need to vaccinate these people immediately.
“To vaccinate these people, we need around 45-days for 1st dose,” it said.
Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, HP, Kerala, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan have already given double doses of vaccine to a large percentage of the population.
Vaccination in rural areas has increased significantly for certain states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, MP, Odisha and UP and rural India’s share has also come down in total cases. However, the report stated, most of the worst affected rural districts have vaccinated a lesser number of the population.
States like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra need to pick up the momentum of vaccination in rural areas, it said.
In around 80% of districts, 52% of the eligible rural population has received a single dose of vaccine as compared to 63% of the eligible population in urban areas.