15 per cent vaccinations essential to counter second Covid wave: SBI

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A total of 1048 million doses of Covid 19 vaccine can be administered in India by October in which 15 per cent of the population can be fully vaccinated while  63 per cent will be done with their first shots as the country augments production of vaccine and also opens up imports, a study by the State Bank of India said.</p>
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The report said that experience of other countries show that infections stabilise only after fully vaccinating 15 per cent of the total population.</p>
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Importantly, it underlined that India must not let its guard down once it is out of the fierce second wave of Covid 19. At present, to contain the spread of the virus, the number of daily tests has increased significantly but so has the daily new cases.</p>
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The report noted that last year from December to mid-February this year, the daily new cases reduced significantly “but at the same time daily tests also declined.”</p>
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“Thus it should not be the case that India becomes complacent again and reduce its tests just to show lower infection rate as this could lead to widespread increase in infection as has happened in the current wave,” the SBI said.</p>
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Also the study said that while it is believed that large public gatherings like in the case of elections rallies or religious congregations have been primary reasons for the scaling up of cases, there has been no meaningful decline in the number of cases in several states like Maharashtra, Delhi and Chhattisgarh which are in a lockdown mode.</p>
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This indicates that the “transmission may not be possibly only through humans, but it is air borne. This makes a strong case of mass sanitization of public places for disinfection,” the report said.</p>
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