Bolstering corona battle

The prospects of a relatively cheap, easy-to-store Covid-19 vaccine have heightened with AstraZeneca, along with Oxford University, announcing promising results of late-stage trials. It, along with Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V, has raised hopes of a potential scientific breakthrough to get a grip on the devastating pandemic. However, the vaccine, including the candidates in advanced stages of development in India, is still some time away. The elaborate regimen needed to make it accessible is a work in progress; there is brainstorming underway on aspects like the storage of the vaccine, the cost, determining the priority groups and the optimum dosage. The immediate concern is the burgeoning cases of coronavirus, prompting a virtual meeting of the PM with CMs, and some plain-speaking on deploying all resources available to ramp up testing and preparedness, and to meet the challenge at hand with the seriousness it demands.

The meeting comes a day after the Supreme Court, while noting that the pandemic has worsened, sought status reports from the Centre and all states on the steps taken to deal with the situation. The surge in several urban centres has resulted in governments enforcing strict measures. Uttar Pradesh is already testing Delhi residents at its border and has capped the number of wedding guests at 100, while night curfew has been imposed in four districts of Himachal Pradesh. Maharashtra has made it mandatory to undergo RT-PCR test for those who wish to come to the state from Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa.

The AIIMS director feels the vaccine protection could extend from nine months to a year, helping break the chain of transmission. Coronavirus will become endemic but won’t disappear, becoming a much milder disease instead. It is only by 2023, it is believed, that the infections would become lesser. That’s a long haul. Hence, the PM’s suggestion to the states against going lax on testing, to work towards lowering the positivity rate and most importantly, to chalk out detailed plans on mass usage if and when a vaccine is ready.