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67.6% Indians over six have covid antibodies: ICMR Sero Survey

covid vaccine

The Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) fourth countrywide sero survey has shown that two third of the general population India had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, showing that about 40 crore people are still in vulnerable population.

The 4th round of national serosurvey was conducted in 70 districts in June-July and included children of 6-17 years of age.

“Two third of the general population had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and a third of population did not have antibodies, which means still 40 crore people are still in vulnerable category,” ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava told media.

The fourth sero survey found the overall sero-prevalence of India to be 67.6 percent.

Findings of the ICMR’s 4th national Covid sero survey show there is a ray of hope, but there is no room for complacency and Covid-appropriate behaviour has to be followed, the government said.

According to the government, 85 per cent of the surveyed healthcare workers had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and one-tenth of HCWs were still unvaccinated.

The survey covered 28,975 general population and 7,252 healthcare workers.

The 67.6 per cent figure is a steep increase from the results of the third national serosurvey.

Conducted between December and January, months before the second wave of infections, it suggested only 21 per cent of those over 10 showed evidence of exposure to COVID-19.

Prime Minister Modi has urged people to follow Covid protocols, warning them that failure to do so will invite the virus to spread more aggressively and infect lakhs more people.

This morning India recorded 30,093 new cases in 24 hours – the lowest in four months.

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Centre updated SCI on the vaccination after being pushed by the Court

Covid19 and Supreme court

After wasting nearly a year in election campaigns in the midst of Covd19, ignoring experts’ views on Kumbh in second wave, mishandling the Oxygen crisis, the centre is now scampering to get the huge population vaccinated.

Supreme Court held the centre’s vaccine pricing policy “irrational” and raised questions of access and equity. The Apex court has literally scolded Central government over the issue of vaccination. Following this, the centre told the court that until the end of this year, it expected to get 188 crore vaccine doses. The centre said that it expects to get vaccine doses from at least five manufacturers which would fully inoculate the total 94-crore population above 18.

The centre said that 51.6 crore doses would be “made available” by July 31.  In an affidavit filed by Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it presented a roadmap to show how it proposes to procure the balance 135 crore from August to December 31 (see chart) from five manufacturers.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

In its affidavit, the Centre said that it estimates 51.6 crore cumulative vaccinations by the end of July based on supply estimates.

The Centre submitted that the projected availability of vaccines from August to December will cover the balance 135 crore doses as per a break-up. The breakup includes 50 crore doses of Covishield; 40 crore doses of Covaxin; 30 crore doses of Bio E’s sub unit vaccine; 5 crore doses of Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine and 10 crore doses of Sputnik V.

GOI added that this “does not include other vaccines which are at various stages of development as on date within the country and may come and become available”.

Meanwhile, in May, the head of India’s Covid-19 task force had said that 216 crore doses would be available in India between August and December.

Also Read: Indemnity from liability to be granted to vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna

However, the latest affidavit does not include the projected availability from Novavax (20 crore), Bharat Biotech’s Nasal vaccine (10 crore), and Genova’s mRNA vaccine (6 crore).

Central government underlined that the drugs regulator has permitted Bharat Biotech to conduct clinical trials on children between 2 years to 18 years of age for Covaxin and enrolment for this trial has begun.

Also Read: An uncertain wait for vaccines by India despite a liberalized regulatory framework

The Centre has told the Supreme Court, “It is submitted that Zydus Cadila which is developing DNA vaccines has concluded its clinical trial for between the age group of 12 to 18 years of age and subject to the statutory permissions, the same may be available in near future for children of the age group of 12 to 18 years of age.”

GOI further added that the vaccination drive would be ramped up if the Government were to procure vaccines from overseas including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. To that effect, the Centre said that negotiations were going on at the highest political and diplomatic levels.

Centre added, “Since these efforts are at a very advanced stage, it is neither desirable nor possible to give comprehensive details. As and when these efforts materialise, the speed of vaccination will be further augmented and enhanced.”

Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave

On the role of the private sector in vaccination, centre said that it has flagged that 55 percent of the population “seeks and gets medical services” from private hospitals and 45 percent from government hospitals.

The Centre argued that by roping in the private sector, it is “incentivising manufacturers” to augment their production capacity and “thereby cross subsidize.”

The Centre said, “The rationale and the object behind this policy decision is the same as it was earlier i.e. permitting private supply of vaccines by the manufacturers to private hospitals so as to widen the reach, reduce stress on public facilities, reducing crowding in public utilities and incentivising manufacturers to augment their production capacity and thereby cross subsidize the price at which they are supplying 75 per cent of their manufactured vaccines to the Central Government.”

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Vaccine-taxation: GST-council will meet on June 12 to discuss recommendations of GoM

GST-Council-Meeting

New vaccination policy is set to kick in from June 21 and it is expected to put an end to differences in GST Council over taxing jabs. The GST-Council is set to meet and discuss tax on individual Covid relief materials soon. The council will hold a meeting on June 12 to discuss recommendations of Group of Ministers (GoM) on tax on Covid-19 vaccine and other equipment.

Also Read: Virus might have leaked from Wuhan lab: US research report

A member of the Group of Ministers said, “As entire procurement for a free vaccination to be done by the Centre, States will not have to worry about tax payment. At the same time, they will get their share from the GST collection as well as through the devolution formula. So, this is likely to bring down the curtain on this dispute.” Regarding concessions/exemptions from GST on Covid-19 related individual items, the GoM submitted its report with recommendations on Saturday.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

The GoM includes Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma as the Convenor. It is believed to have left the issue of taxation on the vaccine for the GST Council. It had recommended status quo on GST on vaccine at 5 percent. For other items, the GoM appeared to have recommended an uniform 5 percent GST for a limited period. At present vaccines attract GST at the rate of 5 percent. Other items barring ambulances, GST-rates vary between 5 to 18 percent. The ambulance has a GST rate of 28 percent.

The new vaccination policy guides that the Centre will pay GST on procuring 75 percent of vaccine produced in the country and that too at a much lower negotiated price. A senior government official explained, “This means the States will neither have to worry about price payout nor GST on that.”

Also Read: An uncertain wait for vaccines by India despite a liberalized regulatory framework

Simultaneously, States will get their share from the GST collection. Apart from that, according to the devolution formula, states are also entitled to get a part of the Central’s share of GST. The official also cited Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s response to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last month. The FinMin had mentioned that GST is paid on the government supplies by the government. From GST collected on the vaccine, half is earned by the Centre and the other half by the States. Additionally, 41 percent of the Centre’s collections also get devolved to the States. Sitharaman had said, “States end up receiving almost 70 per cent of the total revenue collected from the vaccines.”

GST on the vaccine has been a contentious issue between centre and the states. The governments in the states have alleged that centre delays in paying the states their GST dues throwing fiscal federalism in the air. The Centre has been saying repeatedly that exemption from GST will hurt end consumers. Sitharaman had said earlier, “A 5 percent GST rate ensures that the manufacturer is able to utilise ITC and in case of overflow of ITC, claim the refund. Hence exemption to the vaccine from GST would be counterproductive without benefiting the consumer.”

Also Read: Indemnity from liability to be granted to vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna

Even the GST Council’s panel, Fitment Committee, which prepares proposals for rate revisions also agreed and recommended no change in the rate for the GST Council meeting which took place on May 28. The Fitment Committee is up for keeping the rate unchanged on Covid vaccines. The committee has, however, recommended lowering the duty for a limited period on oxygen concentrators and pulse oximeters, but no change for items such as PPE kits and N-95 masks.

Earlier there were suggestions to bring vaccine under zero rated supply category. This essentially means that there will be no GST on the product, but the supplier or manufacturer will get a refund for taxes paid on inputs. Centre had not agreed on this suggestion and argued that zero rated supply category is only for export and not for domestic consumption. In the GST Council meeting, there have been a lot of differences on the taxability of other individual Covid relief materials as well. Hence, it was decided to form a GoM.

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Supreme Court posed questions to government on vaccine procurement and CoWin app

The centre was again in a tight spot when the Supreme Court of India pointed out different flaws in the vaccination and vaccine procurement policy, including the need of making CoWin registration mandatory.

On the Covid-19 vaccine procurement policy, the Supreme Court posed searching questions to the Centre, on Monday. The Apex Court also posed questions on the need for a mandatory registration on the CoWIN app for people to get vaccinated without keeping in mind the real ‘digital India’ situation, observing that the policymakers must have an ear to the ground.
A special bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, L N Rao and S Ravindrabhat raised the issue of digital divide faced by India. It said that since the Centre has made CoWIN registration mandatory for vaccination, how is it going to address the issue of the digital divide facing the country.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

The bench sought to know from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, and asked, “You keep on saying the situation is dynamic but policy makers must have their ears on ground. You keep on saying digital India, digital India but the situation is actually different in rural areas. How will an illiterate labourer, from Jharkhand get registered in Rajasthan? Tell us how you will address this digital divide.”

It also said, “You must smell the coffee and see what is happening across the country. You must know the ground situation and change the policy accordingly. If we had to do it, we would have done it 15-20 days back”.

On this, Mehta replied that registration is mandatory as a person needs to be traced for a second dose and as far as rural areas there are community centres where a person can get registered for vaccination.

Also Read: An uncertain wait for vaccines by India despite a liberalized regulatory framework

The bench further questioned Mehta whether the government thinks that this process is viable and asked him to place the policy document on record.

The Apex court was hearing a suo motu case on management of Covid19 situation in the country.

At the outset, the Supreme Court asked the Centre about the vaccine procurement policy of the Centre. In doing so, it referred to the fact that states like Punjab and Delhi are in the process of issuing global tenders to procure foreign vaccines for COVID-19.
The Apex court bench said that even Municipal Corporation like Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received bids.

The bench further said, “Is this the policy of the central government that the state or municipal corporation can procure the vaccine or the Union Government is going to procure for them like a nodal agency? We want clarity on this and rationale behind this policy.”

Centre said that the entire eligible population would be vaccinated by the end of 2021. The law officer said that the government is in talks with companies like Pfizer and if it succeeds then timeline for completing the vaccination would change.

For saving lives of Covid19 patients and to facilitate a public health response to the pandemic, the Apex court had constituted a 12-member National Task Force to formulate a methodology for the scientific allocation of Oxygen to states and UTs.

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TMC files complaint of MCC violation against BJP on the pic of PM appearing on Covid vaccine certificate

Model Code of Conduct

Trinamool Congress (TMC) wrote to the Election Commission alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo on certificate issued to those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 violates the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) currently in effect in poll-bound states.

The MCC comes into force from the day the poll panel announces the schedule for the election and remains in effect until results are declared.

TMC leader Derek O’Brien shared the vaccination certificate carrying PM Moid’s photo and  tweeted, “PM photo still brazenly appearing on #COVID19 documents.”

“Elections declared. PM photo still brazenly appearing on #COVID19 documents. Trinamool @AITCofficial taking this up strongly with Election Commission @ECISVEEP”,  he said in a tweet.

The Election Commission, in the last press conference of the CEC, announced the dates for Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry on February 26. The elections in all four states and the Union Territory will be held from March 27 to April 29 and counting will be done on May 2.

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Covid vaccine: Over 16 lakh beneficiaries inoculated in COVID-19 vaccination drive in India

covid vaccine

Across the country, over 16 lakh healthcare workers have received COVID-19 vaccine jabs till the evening of the ninth day of the nationwide immunization drive, as per provisional reports, the Union health ministry said on Sunday. The ministry said that 31,466 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Sunday till 7:30 pm in five states, Haryana (907), Karnataka (2,472), Punjab (1,007), Rajasthan (24,586) and Tamil Nadu (2,494), through 693 sessions.

“The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID-19 has crossed 16 lakh (16,13,667) till 7.30 pm today through 28,613 sessions, as per the provisional report,” the ministry said, adding that the final report will be completed by late in the night.

“Only 10 adverse events following immunization have been reported till 7.30 pm on the ninth day of the vaccination drive,” it stated.

Also See: New mutants of Coronavirus

The inoculation drive was launched on January 16 with over three crore healthcare and frontline workers prioritized to get the jabs initially.

The total number of beneficiaries, who were vaccinated till 7.30 pm on Sunday since the launch of the drive, include 1,47,030 in Andhra Pradesh, 76,125 in Bihar, 53,529 in Kerala, 1,91,443 in Karnataka, 61,720 in Tamil Nadu, 25,811 in Delhi, 78,466 in Gujarat and 84,505 in West Bengal, according to provisional reports.

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COVID Vaccine: After Brazil’s ‘dhanyawad post’, India says ‘the honour is ours’

covid vaccine

Brazil President Jair M Bolsonaro invoked Lord Hanuman and thanked India as the country today received two million doses of coronavirus vaccines made in India.

Bolsonaro said his country feels honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle by joining efforts.

He took to Twitter to thank India. His ‘Dhanyawad’ post had an image that referred to a tale in the Ramayana wherein Lord Hanuman lifted the entire Govardhan mountain to deliver ”Sanjeevni booti”, a magical life-saving herb, to Lanka to save Lord Ram’s brother Lakshman, who was wounded in a war.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi replied by saying that India will continue to strengthen the cooperation on healthcare.

As part of its Vaccine Maitri commitment, India promised to ship Covid 19 vaccines to six of its neighbors as a goodwill gesture. Under the programme, Serum India Institute’s Covishield consignments were dispatched to Mauritius and Seychelles.

As India supplies Covid vaccines to countries in South Asia, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Friday said that the government is also undertaking contractual supplies of coronavirus vaccines to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Maldives and Bhutan were amongst the first nations to get vaccines from India. On January 20, India had sent 1,50,000 doses of Covisheild vaccine to Bhutan and 1,00,000 doses to the Maldives as grant assistance.

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In a detailed plan for Covid-vaccine drive next year; schemes of digital certificates, SMS, and other methods involved

For the vaccination drive towards protection from the Covid19, the deliberations by the high-level National Expert Vaccine Group on Vaccine Administration are significant at present.

A detailed blueprint for the preparation of backend operation is underway for the largest immunization drive. It comes at a time when the Centre expects to receive and utilize 400-500 million doses of vaccine and cover approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021.

Days before vaccination, an SMS would be delivered to the beneficiary. It would be detailing the time and place. There would also be a QR code certificate, which would be generated after each dose. Health facilities involving the large network of schools, on the lines of elections, would be involved in the immunization drive to ensure a speedy access to the vaccine.

These are some of the key features discussed in detail by an expert group, which is currently developing the blueprint for conducting the country’s largest immunization drive against Covid19 early next year. The vaccination drive will not be confined to existing health facilities, but will also be extended to schools, on the lines of election booths.

Around 400-500 million vaccine doses are expected to be received and utilized by the Centre to cover 20-25 crore people by July 2021. GOI has sought data from states on priority groups for need of vaccine, and it has also indicated that healthcare professionals would be among the early recipients.

A key feature will be added to the eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network), an indigenously developed technology that tracks vaccine stocks digitally. This feature will track the beneficiary, the person who will be vaccinated. There are around 28,000 cold chain storage facilities covered under the eVIN and the network facility is expected to be augmented.

The vaccination drive will be conducted in different phases and will also include multiple doses. An electronic platform is being developed where vaccination sessions can be scheduled and it will communicate with the beneficiary through SMS. It will also provide the QR code certificate after vaccination. It would have similarities to the Digi-Locker developed under the MEITY Ministry.

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Russia registers the first Covid vaccine- hails it a Sputnik moment

The world witnessed Russia registering its first Coronavirus vaccine. Putin stated in a meeting that the vaccine has proven to be effective in tests to counter Covid 19. Russian government led by Putun hailed this as a landmark development as the registration of the vaccine was done with less than two months in human trials. Russia vouched it as a moment to prove the scientific finesse of the country.

This step of speedy registration has raised some concerns from certain sections of observers as the final trials are yet to be completed. Sistema, a Russian conglomerate expects to put the vaccine into mass production by the year end. In the coming weeks, the health workers treating the Covid patients across Russia would be given the chance to volunteer to be vaccinated. An interesting angle to this story is that president Putin said that his daughter has been given a shot of the vaccine.

Whether this statement was issued to build an amount of trust factor among Russians remains to be seen. Mass inoculation will follow after the regulatory approvals which doesn’t seem to be a barrier in the present scenario which may very well be a Russian moment. Head of Russian Sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev commented that this vaccine development is a Sputnik moment in Russian history. He compared it to the 1957 launch of Sputnik I,the world’s first satellite by USSR. In order to take this message further around the world, the vaccine would be marketed under the name of Sputnik V.

It remains to be seen how the vaccine goes through WHO pre qualifications and mandated requirements under TRIPS.

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Concerns and hope till the Covid vaccine arrives

The White house Coronavirus advisor and Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been known for his comments on the current pandemic raging throughout the world. He has time and again stressed on the need to enhance the public health measures, even at times pointing out the fallacies in how the USA has been dealing with the COVID 19. His comments have more than often have been diametrically opposite to the statements made by POTUS Trump in his various White House press conferences. In the earlier weeks, he had raised concerns that the pandemic situation could get worsened if the norms of social distancing are not followed strictly.

Recently, in a webinar, he has asserted that the efficacy of a COVID vaccine may be in the range of 50-60 %. He also added that the chances of the vaccine being 98% effective are not that great. He further stated that the studies of Moderna Inc COVID vaccine could very well generate definitive data by November or December of 2020. That the Coronavirus could not be completely eradicated, and that the prevalence of its infection can be reduced has been stated earlier by him.

Amid various voluntary trials and vaccine development steps taken around the world, India has been under global limelight as it is the trusted producer of a large number of vaccines needed around the world. This has been affirmed by Dr. Fauci. At one of the conferences, he had mentioned that the world would need a billion COVID vaccines by the end of 2021. This pandemic has been described by various experts including Dr. Fauci as the perfect storm whose end is not in the sight. That it has a respiratory base and is very effective in the human to human transmission makes the disease a nightmare scenario for the public health officials, epidemiologists, and other specialized disease experts. Another concerning feature of this virus is that it jumps species.

Experts like Dr. Swamy Swaminathan of WHO had made a point on the importance of the role of international cooperation through WHO to make an equitable distribution of the COVID vaccine possible. Leading public health officials including Dr. Swaminathan and Dr. Fauci are worried regarding the COVID as it has an unprecedented broad spectrum and range. Almost 20 to 49% of people infected people have no symptoms. Some have mild symptoms for around two weeks, then have the post-viral syndrome, while many others need hospitalization, support of Oxygen, Intensive care unit treatment with many even dying.

Another problem which the world is trying to avoid under the aegis of World health organization is the stashing away of the developed vaccines by the rich countries which happened in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. This can be avoided if the arrangement of GAVI can be used in its all true intentions and purposes. GAVI – Global alliance for vaccines and immunizations is a public-private partnership in the public health domain with connections and inputs from WHO, World Bank, and UNICEF. It has been instrumental in setting a deal between the Indian Pharmaceutical company-Serum Institute and the British-Swedish firm – Astra Zeneca using funding from Gates Foundation for manufacturing of 100 million units of COVID vaccine.

There are some important stages through which the vaccines come from the stage of inception to final availability in the public space. There are clinical human trials (three phases generally), standardization of the dosage amount for the particular target population, then streamlining of the production operations and then production and distribution. As of now in the Indian context, the Serum Institute is being looked at as the main provider of the vaccine. Until the time vaccine becomes available in the public domain, it is in best interests of the public to follow what is being repeatedly told by the experts around the world like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Swaminathan, i.e. to follow social distancing, wash hands, maintain a certain level of hygiene and to wear the mask while stepping out.