Life in the Covid-nation

After a long 11 months of being under the dark, heavy and ubiquitous cloud that is COVID-19 in India, a ray of light shone through in the form of the much-awaited vaccine approval. With the Covisheild and Covaxin vaccines established for safety and immunogenicity and ready to be rolled out on January 16th, all was in place for India to begin transitioning back to normal life. Yet here we are, in mid-April, with several new coronavirus mutations spreading like wildfire, severe lockdown restrictions giving us early pandemic Deja-Vous, a record high daily case-count, and a healthcare system that’s crumbling under the pressure of it all. This current situa

tion which has quickly escalated from mildly worrying to worse than ever before, has hindered India’s vaccination efforts and overcast any hope of receding to the pre-pandemic ‘old normal’.

Exactly a year ago, on the 18th of April, India reported just over 1300 new cases. This year at the same time the country reports over 2,73,000 new cases, which is a whopping x200 increase. Some contributors to this unprecedented surge in the spread of the virus are the relaxation of public transport and mask-wearing rules, the reopening of crowded indoor spaces, and the authorization of large religious gatherings that obliterate the concept of social distancing. To couple the effects of these social aspects were the ‘Desi’ virus mutations that have been sneaking around. Of these numerous strains, the most prominent is the ‘double mutant strain' that is said to have originated in India but has now immigrated to 8 other countries. This strain is particularly infectious and has been detected in 61% of reported cases in Maharashtra. Its danger lies in its enhanced ability to bind with receptors and evade antibodies. This horror of evolution has only spelt bad news for India as public and private hospitals alike struggle to find empty beds and oxygen ventilators to keep critical patients alive. As quoted in the Mint, the owner of United Gas said that "This second wave has increased the demand for oxygen here. Normally during the non- covid times, we used to provide 5-6 tons of liquid oxygen to the hospitals but now it has been increased up to 18 tons. We are facing difficulties in supplying it due to the increased cases across Maharashtra". Adding to this growing plight is the impact of the renewed statewide lockdown on businesses and workers. Restrictions like this hit the economy harder than we might imagine, and not just on a macro, industrial level, as highlighted by a recent New York Times article stating that India’s middle class has shrunk from 99 million to 66 million citizens, as the pandemic has pushed millions into poverty.

One of the obvious solutions to curb the alarming rate at which the virus is spreading would be to amp up vaccination efforts. But where are we on that? To say that there’s a shortage in vaccine supplies is an understatement. The Covaxin vaccine, produced by Serum Institute, was targeted to produce 100 million vaccines per month to match the government's vaccination goals. But a recent fire at one of their production facilities is part of the reason that they’re only churning out a measly 65 million vaccines per month. To add to the woe of our vaccine shortage is the Geneva-based ‘Vaccine Alliance’ health partnership that India committed to, through which we planned to export vaccines to 64 lower-income countries. While the Finance Minister brags that ‘the world's largest vaccination drive is underway in India’, Bloomberg reports show that only a little over 3% of India’s population have received a vaccine shot and just 0.8% of people are fully vaccinated. What's more concerning is an analysis by Dr Anthony Fauci, a physician-scientist and immunologist, who warned that at the current rate of vaccination ‘it will take India 2.4 years to vaccinate 75% of its population — roughly the amount required to achieve herd immunity, as quoted in The Swaddle.

But the fight against the overwhelming spread of COVID-19 in India isn’t yet lost. The government has already made the next step in accelerating vaccination efforts by opening up vaccines to anyone over the age of 18, as of 19th April 2021. This is likely to have a positive effect, as The Guardian demonstrates that ‘removing age restrictions opens up access to the vaccine to at least 400 million more people. Another hopeful front that seems to be opening up with the Sputnik V vaccine approval, and pending Johnson & Johnson approval in India. While adding a fresh supply of vaccines to the mix, the J & J vaccine is particularly efficient for its extra advantage of being single-shot, which is extremely valuable for a country as populated as India. Further supplementing the good news is a Reuters report that states that the Indian government is ‘likely to agree to give a $30m grant to the Serum Institute of India, to boost its monthly production capacity. To cut short this painstaking, whack-a-mole-esque battle against COVID’s colonization of India, authorities should consider redistributing the national supply of vaccines more effectively in proportion to densely populated, and badly hit states like Maharashtra.

So while the pandemic’s ever-expanding dark cloud continues casting a shadow over the country, with the summer comes the promise of a sunny, mask-free future.