Critical Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccination Status in India and Future Directions for Policy Makers

Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted scientists from around the world to design anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, the free availability of basic science data has allowed the creation of vaccines based on very innovative platforms and directed towards very well defined sensible targets, high financial support both from private consortia and the governments of several nations have made it possible to develop the new vaccines extremely quickly, the possibility of having numerous vaccines based on different technologies will allow us to select those that can be most effective in specific phases of the pandemic and different parts of the world, the production, and distribution of billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines is the new, difficult challenge, the creative and technological effort that lead to the development of COVID-19 vaccines has changed the way of thinking and designing new vaccines for other diseases(Forni et al., 2021). (Hodgson et al., 2021) found that in the case of SARS-CoV-2, an efficacious vaccine might prevent infection, disease, or transmission. The outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals is heterogeneous and dependent on multiple variables, including age, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities. This implies that at least 70-80% of the population must achieve active immunity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), either because of a previous COVID-19 infection or by vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. According to (Anand & Stahel, 2021) safety and efficacy trials reported high efficacy rates of 94-95% after two-interval doses, in conjunction with limited side effects and a low rate of adverse reactions. (Yan et al., 2021) argues that various strategies have been designed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, vaccine development is high on the agenda despite the unknown duration of the protection time. Various vaccines have been under clinical trials with promising results in different countries. (Chakraborty et al., 2021) Recently, India is at risk due to the exponential rising of COVID-19 infection, which generated a second wave. This infection rise may affect the vaccination program in India, and it can affect vaccine production. As more people are vaccinated, the spread of the virus may become unlikely and we may reach herd immunity and help us achieve this public health goal. Thus it becomes important to review the Covid vaccine status in India, the registrations, the doses are taken state-wise and the vaccination trend in India, the perception and attitude of the public towards vaccination, which would contribute towards giving a future direction to the Government, pharmaceutical industry, health organizations, and medical practitioners to plan the production and execution strategies which would further prevent the upcoming of the third wave and bring back the economic status and the public to normal.