Bhubaneswar: As the country's Covid-19 vaccination plan received a boost with the emergency use nod given to two vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - by the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Controller Organsiation (CDSCO), the day also saw a massive mock drill in as many as 125 districts spread across all the states, including Odisha, in the country.
Though the phase-3 trials of both the vaccines are undergoing, the DGCI had given approval to deliver the shots to frontline corona warriors across the country. The vaccines will also be given to elderly persons in emergency conditions, observed a Union health ministry note.
When according to the vaccination plan made by the Union Health Ministry, a total of 30 crore people across the country will be delivered the shots free of cost to fight the pandemic virus, how many would receive the shots in Odisha has been the moot question now.
As per the Odisha government, in the first phase the shot will given to around 3.2 lakh corona warriors and high risk elderly populace. The State government has decided to develop a whopping 29,276 centres for carrying out the operation of Covid-19 vaccination drive.
What Is The High Risk Group Count In Odisha?
When both Centre and State had made it clear that corona warriors and elderly populace will be the priority group for vaccination, a look at the mortalities due to corona virus in the State in the last 30 days tells the big story.
As per the data available with State Health department, during the last 30-days the State had recorded a total of 130 covid-19 mortalities.
An analysis of the data further reveals that nearly 85 percent of the corona virus mortalities in Odisha during December were in the age-group of 50-plus years. In absolute count, the number stood at around 110, the data shows.
A look at the age-group wise deaths during the month of December shows that nearly 58 per cent of the Covid-19 mortalities were in the age-group of 60-plus and the remaining around 27 per cent belong to the age-group of 50-60 years. The total covid-19 deaths in the age-group of over 60 years in the State stood at around 76, revealed the data.
Moreover, the State Health department data shows while 73 per cent of the total corona related mortalities in the State during the last month were due to existing co-morbid conditions of the infected patients, a high of around 35 have succumbed to the pathogen, despite not having any co-morbidities.
Among the most co-morbid killer conditions, diabetes and hypertension together accounted for around 87 per cent of Covid-19 corona virus deaths in the State, and another nearly 8 per cent deaths were attributed to chronic Kidney disease.
While the mortality and co-morbidity chart for the month of December in the State very well highlighted the risk group in the State, in the case of universal vaccination of this vulnerable age - group, Odisha would need a whopping around 15 million doses for its over 73.15 lakh persons in the age-group of over 50 years, observed a senior official in the State Public Health Department.
Since the phase-1 of the vaccination drive, which may resume by the end of January, is meant for frontline corona warriors and high risk elderly populace, Odisha's over 1.3 lakh frontline corona warriors (doctors and paramedics in health care centres) are likely to be delivered the first shots in the State, the official informed.
Covishield And CoVaxin
The two vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - developed respectively by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech (BB) have been given approval by the DGCI for emergency use authorisation. There is a buzz that Covishield is likely to be practically available for use within the next week, a hint to this regard was dropped by DGCI chairman VG Somani during a webinar on vaccines recently.
What Is Emergency Use?
Under this, the manufacturers are allowed to market their vaccines despite non-submission of all the evidences normally required to establish the product’s safety and efficacy. And the manufacturers will be permitted to deploy their vaccines for the priority or high risk groups.
Covishield is similar to the ‘Oxford vaccine’ developed by the Oxford University vaccine group and marketed by AstraZeneca. The vaccine got an approval in the UK under emergency use conditions recently.
As per the data available with Union Health Ministry, at least two more vaccines are waiting for the DGCI nod – Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Russia’s Sputnik-V.