The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified 1 lakh frontline workers working as Covid-19 warriors in government and private hospitals who will be given the Covid-19 vaccine first after the trial runs are completed and the vaccine is available in the market.
Image source: India TV
BMC officials said they have compiled data on 1 lakh frontline workers who are going to be a priority for vaccine distribution followed by senior citizens. Till now, more than 2,500 frontline workers of BMC have been contracted Covid-19 and more than 150 have lost their lives.
Suresh Kakani, the additional commissioner of BMC, said, “We have identified a total of 1 lakh frontline workers in the city who will be given vaccine on priority once the vaccine is available. These 1 lakh frontline workers involve workers from both private and government institutions.”
Kakani added, “After frontline workers, the vaccine will be administered on senior citizens. The Central and state governments will also issue guidelines on further distribution. However, the school of thought is such that frontline workers and senior citizens are going to be a priority.”
According to BMC, the vaccine distribution strategy will be amended from time to time based on the guidelines received from the Central and state governments.
The Central government has, two months ago, already formed an expert committee comprising representatives from all relevant ministries and institutions to oversee all aspects of Covid-19 vaccine plan — from the identification of the vaccine to buying to financing the purchase, to distribution and administration.
The identification process undertaken by BMC is part of the civic body’s vaccine distribution strategy. HT had, on October 4, reported that BMC will draw up a plan for vaccine distribution starting November.
In terms of vaccine trials, BMC has kicked off trials of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University a month ago. The trial is being undertaken at the civic-run KEM Hospital.
India is banking on four types of vaccines for which trials are being conducted or will be started in the coming days. The four types of vaccine include the BCG vaccine, the vaccine by Oxford University, Russia’s Sputnik V, and India’s Covaxin by Bharat-Biotech.
The Serum Institute of India, which is conducting trials for the vaccine by Oxford University, had two days ago said that the vaccine can be made available starting January 2021, if it is found to be successful.
Meanwhile, on the status of antibodies, BMC said it doesn’t plan to conduct any fresh sero surveillance study which is undertaken to ascertain whether an individual has developed Covid-19 antibodies.
A BMC official said, “It is natural that with more time, more people have started developing antibodies, and this could be one of the reasons why the number of cases has been going down in the city.”
Meanwhile, the city’s daily case positivity rate is below 10% since the past five days, and active cases are also going down. As of Friday, the city had 262,473 Covid-19 cases and 10,399 deaths.
Article source: Hindustan Times