New Coronavirus Report : India needs to vaccinate 70% population to contain COVID-19, says Vaccine expert Gagandeep Kang. To slow the spread of COVID-19 and decrease transmission, India needs to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the population, said Gagandeep Kang, professor of Microbiology at the Christian Medical College. The government has said that about 30 crore Indians will be vaccinated against novel coronavirus by July 2021.
Speaking to the Times of India, Kang said that – based on the government’s current plan to immunise 300 million people by July 2021 – “reaching two-thirds of the population will take us into 2022”.
She said that the government would need to rely on Coronavirus vaccine supplies from Indian manufacturers as the supply for the entire population would not be available immediately.
“The supplies will be slow initially but will begin to ramp up in two-three months. Given the size of our population, I think in a reasonably optimistic scenario, it will take until the end of 2021, the beginning of 2022, for people who are not prioritised to get the vaccines,” Kang said.
Singapore starts COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare workers
Singapore became the first Asian country to start vaccinating healthcare workers against COVID-19 with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday. More healthcare institutions will follow in the coming weeks, with public healthcare institutions and private hospitals to progressively arrange for their staff to be vaccinated within their premises, The Straits Times reported.
Elderly persons aged 70 years old and above will get the vaccine shots from February. Other Singaporeans and long-term residents who are medically eligible for vaccination will be next in line, according to the report.
The Health Ministry’s expert committee had recommended that persons at high risk of being infected, including healthcare workers and front-line workers, should be given priority for vaccination.
The committee’s recommendations have been accepted on the vaccination strategy. Singapore received its first shipment of vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech on December 21, with subsequent stocks expected to arrive in batches over several months.
Singapore is the first country in Asia to obtain the vaccine, which has been administered in other countries such as Britain, Canada and the US.
