The public health efforts of our nation is strongly supported by its R&D capacity for developing vaccines against COVID-19 that aims to vaccinate all eligible Indians by the end of this year but the drive needs to pick up a consistent pace to meet the target. According to data, more than half of India’s eligible population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. By announcing a new vaccine tracker the Union health ministry has taken a step to keep a track and make sure the world’s biggest vaccine drive is successfully completed in time.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare, during a regular press briefing on efforts against the Covid-19 pandemic, announced a new vaccine tracker is being developed in India that would contain week-by-week data and update on vaccine doses administered. Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan made the announcement and director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research Dr Balram Bharagava said that the tracker would be available on the ministry’s official website in a “few days’ time.”
“As the health secretary (Bhushan) has said, we have tried to develop [the] India Covid-19 vaccine tracker,” Dr Bhargava said. He added that the tracker has been done for having data synergy between CO-Win portal, the Union health ministry’s Covid-19 portal and the ICMR’s national Covid-19 testing database. “These data have been synergised based on the ICMR identification number and on the basis of mobile numbers and we have been able to get a vaccine tracker which is going to be online very soon in the ministry of health’s website,” he further said.
Here is what we know so far about the Covid-19 vaccine tracker being developed, which Bhushan called an “ambitious intervention.”
- The vaccine tracker would show the vaccinations done and along with evidence and data, would also be a scientific system for monitoring breakthrough infections,said Rajesh Bhushan, while announcing the tracker.
- Data from the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s Covid-19 portal, CO-Win digital platform for vaccinations and also the testing data from the ICMR would be synergised.
- ICMR’s identification number and the mobile number have been used in synergising the data between the three portals.
- The tracker will also have data on weekly data on Covid-19 vaccinations,
- Briefing on the protective effect of vaccines against deaths, Dr Bhargava said that based on data from April 18, 2021 to August 15, 2021, vaccines were found to be 96.6% effective in preventing mortality after one dose and 97.5% effective after two doses.
- Weekly data for the number of doses administered, beneficiaries inoculated and the number of deaths after receiving one or both doses and the same data for different age groups would also be available.
- The ICMR chief also said that the number of deaths among people who were not vaccinated was higher than those vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, more than 716 million vaccine doses, including the 8,651,701 doses in the last 24 hours, have been administered in the country as of 7am on the day (Sept 9, 2021), the Union health ministry said.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
