The COVID Task Force for India would be extremely interested in collaborating with Government of India. We would be grateful if you would facilitate a connection.
Thank you for your mail and your kind comments about my being named to the International COVID Task Force. I look forward to working with you on this challenging task.
For your information, PRIP Raja Saboo, Deepak Kapur and myself are regular invitees to the Regional meetings of the WHO which are convened to discuss the strategies for combating COVID in the region and always have a Government of India representative to talk about COVAX and other issues.
Deepak and I have recently been in touch with NITI Aayog (which has replaced the erstwhile Indian Planning Commission) and they have expressed a lot of interest in joining hands with Rotary to promote COVID immunization in India. Of course, the bureaucratic wheels grind slowly, and this may take some time to materialize.
The NITI Aayog is mindful of the following facts that we brought to their attention :
There is a massive role that humanitarian organizations play in improving the vaccination coverage. In the past, organizations such as Rotary, together with WHO and UNICEF have played a stellar role in polio elimination across South East Asia region. Central and state governments must consider leveraging those capabilities and infrastructure created over decades to improve vaccination coverage in difficult-to-reach areas.
Currently, Rotary clubs in states like Tamil Nadu , Kerala , Haryana, Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur are helping local authorities in setting up centres for immunization, thereby providing preventive care. The other aspect is the providing palliative care for those who have suffered or are suffering from COVID-19, by setting up oxygen plants, oxygen concentrator banks and arranging for pro-bono doctors to offer free-of-cost consultation.
Given the success of Rotary and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI’s) polio program to date, incidences of polio have plummeted by more than 99.9 percent globally, and only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain endemic. Rotary has been able to draw insights from these efforts and apply them to improving public health at large. In fact, Rotary is already transitioning its extensive polio eradication knowledge and assets in India to support the government of India’s public health goals, such as measles and rubella elimination, and now, to support the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
Among many assets, we are leveraging the information, education, and communication framework from India’s fight against polio, which dictates that information must be consistent, simple, and delivered on a continual basis in multiple languages, to educate citizens on ways to prevent COVID-19. This can be applied, especially in the context of getting more people from rural areas registered on “Co-Win” (India’s digital platform for registering for vaccination) as well as countering vaccine hesitancy. People in the rural areas need to be guided on how they can register themselves on the Co-WIN platform and educated on vaccine safety and efficacy.
Even as the government’s vaccination guidelines have been formed keeping in mind beneficiaries from all kinds of background, this issue of access disparity has been prominent for a while now. There are provisions of walk-ins and on-site registration along with app registration for those who might not have access to digital device or are unable to register themselves on the Co-Win platform. The Government along with civil society players such as Rotary are also helping to bridge this gap and provide access to all. The responsibility also lies on the privileged section who has a huge role to play in helping the ones in last mile and mitigating this issue of digital divide. So far, the rural vaccination coverage has been promising and continuous effort is being made to fuel country’s aggressive vaccination drive against COVID-19.
India’s challenges in accelerating its immunization drive are considerable. The major challenge being the huge population and along with it, the economic repercussions of the disease itself.
The consequent lockdowns and the impact they have caused must be factored in. Operational issues such as crowd management can pose significant challenges for the care providers administering the vaccine. Besides, educating all beneficiaries regarding the efficacy and safety of the vaccines is also critical.