How India mobilised Covid-19 vaccination in rural India  

India recently achieved the landmark of administering 200 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses. It appears to have effectively adopted a public private partnership (PPP) model in reaching out to the remotest parts of the country.

In order to vaccinate the rural population, the Indian government used services of private hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and incorporated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of companies to strengthen its cold chain supplies. 

According to the Union Health Ministry, 13,626 Ice Lined Refrigerators (ILRs) and 12,461 Deep Freezers (DFs) were made available in 2021-22. “Solar Direct Drives (SDDs) (437), Walk-In Cooler (WIC) (93) and Walk-In Freezer (WIF) (52), Cold Box (large) (33,479) Vaccine Carrier (544,121) Ice packs – (216,6732) for safe storage and transfer were made available. Four insulated vans and 13 refrigerated trucks were made available through CSR,” the ministry said.

At least 213.51 crore syringes were also mobilised for the national Covid-19 vaccination programme. “Amidst global scarcity of syringes, existing 1ml and 2ml syringes were marked with 0.5 ml to be utilised for Covid vaccination. Special training of vaccinators conducted for efficient utilisation of 1ml, 2ml and 3 ml syringes,” the ministry said.

It took almost 9 months to reach the 100 crore mark and another 9 months to reach the 200 crore mark since the start of the vaccination drive on January 16, 2021. The highest single-day vaccination record of 2.5 crore doses was achieved on September 17, 2021.

With the CoWin platform, technology also played a major role in achieving the target vaccinations.

“It’s a depiction of our inherent digital adaptability despite the relative lack of skills, training and infrastructure, or even literacy in many areas. We managed to cover all age groups across states. Of course, apart from government agencies, there were private players such as online doctors' networks and knowledge associations which helped in this mammoth exercise by way of sharing Covid-focused updates, relevant literature, informing people on the availability of vaccines and not the least, enlightening people on the need for vaccination,” said Dr. Mukesh Parmar, CEO, Docplexus, an online community of doctors.

On July 15, 2022, the Union Government launched a 75-day long ‘Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’ to provide free precaution dose to all eligible adult population at government Covid Vaccination Centres (CVCs). This special drive, part of the celebration for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, is being implemented in a ‘mission mode’ to increase uptake of precaution dose of Covid vaccine.

“The development community came together and worked with the government for the mammoth task.  We were also involved in the initiatives implemented jointly with the Union Health Ministry, WHO, UNICEF, USAID, etc. USAID supported SAMRIDH Healthcare Finance Facility which IPE Global is managing, has specifically worked in strengthening health systems and contributed in a small manner to this large achievement,” said Himanshu Sikka, Chief Strategy and Diversification Officer at international development consulting firm, IPE Global.

Also read: India might get emergency approval for its first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine