The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include all people above the age of 18 years in the nationwide vaccination drive to mitigate surge in COVID-19 cases. Besides this, the IMA also suggested the Centre should scale up free walk-in facilities for COVID vaccination. In this letter, the IMA stated despite following the Centre's test, trace and treat guidelines in letter and spirit, COVID-19 infections have been rising since people are not following COVID-appropriate behaviour.
"At present, we are vaccinating the population above 45 years. In view of the rapid spread of the second wave, we suggest that our vaccination strategy needs to be geared up with immediate effect on war foot," the IMA stated in its letter to the Prime Minister.
The doctors' body also stated that the second wave of the pandemic is reaching record highs and "vaccination against COVID stands as a single evidence-based resource for us to restrict the cases by raising the personal immune response and pave way for herd immunity to decrease the severity of the disease."
Here is what the IMA suggested to ramp up the immunisation drive:
As of Tuesday, over 8.31 crore people have been immunised against COVID-19, with more than 43 lakh people getting the life-saving jabs in the last 24 hours. Out of these, over 7.22 crore people received the first dose whereas 1.08 crore people got the second dose of the jab. Highest number of coronavirus vaccinations have taken place in Maharashtra at more than 81.27 lakh.
Maharashtra is followed closely by states like Gujarat (76.89 lakh), Rajasthan (72.99 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (71.98 lakh), West Bengal (65.41 lakh), Karnataka (48.23 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (44.63 lakh), Kerala (40.30 lakh), Odisha (32.87 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (32.05 lakh).
Edited by Mehak Agarwal
Also read: From 8,000 to 1 lakh in just 62 days; 2nd Covid-19 wave is more infectious than 1st
Also read: India likely to reduce COVID-19 vaccine export with rise in cases: Gavi