As you read this article, India creates history, our country marks a grandeur milestone, the mark of surpassing the administration of 100 crore doses in the citizens of India. From Qutub Minar in Delhi to Metcalf hall in Kolkata, 100 heritage monuments in India illuminate to mark this milestone of the administration of surpassing 100 crore vaccines. India has completed inoculation of over 100 crore doses on Thursday, 21st October 2021, in just about nine months since starting vaccination. This has been a gargantuan journey in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.
When we look back in time, especially in early 2020, not only the world, but humanity was dealing with such a dreadful pandemic after a century, it was something new for all the people. Remembering how unprecedented the whole situation was back then we were battling with, as the enemies that were invisible and continuously mutating beyond the horizons of our knowledge.
The journey of vaccination was not only a journey of battling an invisible enemy, but the journey was a shift from anxiety to assurance, it was also a time to restore faith, a time where everything had to be changed to make it new normal. And most importantly the journey was to commemorate all the frontline workers and be grateful to them. This vaccination drive has not only given people the strength to fight with the Covid-19 but also proved that our nation has emerged stronger.
The success to attain a century was not only because of hard-working entrepreneurs or stakeholders who had to make crucial decisions or scientists, it was because we the citizens of India had faith and trust in vaccinations made in our very own motherland. Even though the situation was devastating which had created lots of anxiety in people accompanied with wariness. There was a time where few of the people who were only dependent on foreign things have now come together to bring out an enormous change.
The preparation of the vaccine was started in early 2020, where it was quite explicit that people will only be safe with the help of vaccination. With extensive research and expert panels, the preparation for a road map of well-being was being constructed. It was really difficult for India to make it to this point as very few countries have produced vaccines for their own nation and are clearly dependent on other nations. Keeping in mind the drawbacks India could have faced for not producing its own vaccine would be par destruction, as India having enormous population could take years to get vaccinated, and the probability of people getting vaccinated would have also been not possible as it was beyond the familiarity. Hats off to all those Indian scientists and entrepreneurs who have been working tirelessly to reach our demands and make this possible in a stipulated time. This just proves that India is independent when it comes to vaccination.
Other than just producing the vaccination and having sufficient supply chains, what was even more important was the platforms, or rather logistics, where and how people will be vaccinated. India has a massive population of more than 130 crores and needs a proper analysis of all the roadblocks it might face it begins from a journey when a vial has to be taken from a plant in Pune or a plant from Hyderabad to a suitable hub in any state and then taken to the district hub, where the trips are taken by either flight or trains keeping in mind the optimum temperature which has to be centrally monitored. For this particular process over one lakh cold chain equipment was used. And after this step as per the pre-decided schedule, the states were notified.
One more factor that made this vaccine drive possible is an app called Co-Win, which is an app introduced by the central government of India created for real-time monitoring of Covid 19 vaccine delivery.
Here what is of more importance is that 130 crore Indians have functioned as one unit in times of crisis. What’s more notable is the emphasis on adults. In contrast to the established universal immunization program for infants and children, India has never undertaken a large-scale universal adult vaccination campaign. And remarkably it was exercised in the midst of April and May during the second wave on its peak and shooting numbers of daily cases. It was only possible because vaccine manufacturers, the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, were able to ensure continuous vaccine availability even when supply was initially very limited. If the Serum Institute had no foresight to begin manufacturing in advance, and Bharat Biotech’s ability to develop an Indigenous vaccine in collaboration with the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) India would have indefinitely waited for a vaccine from other nations.