Globally, so far the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has been favored by rich countries. This disparity is expected to be addressed by the development and production of more vaccines. The World Health Organization has approved only seven vaccines so far, of which 125 are still in various stages of clinical development, apart from 194 in the pre-clinical development stage.
The United States leads the race with 32 candidate vaccines under clinical development by pharmaceutical companies based in the country, including four with foreign collaborations. China ranks second with 19 candidates. India has seven developments, three of which are with foreign collaboration – one each with the US, Australia and Iran.
RNA vaccines have attracted the most attention due to the success of Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech jabs, protein subunit vaccines (such as the Novavax jab) and non-replicating viral vector vaccines (Covishield is one example). in the clinical stage (35 percent and 15 percent, respectively). DNA and RNA vaccines account for the other 27%.
Some of these 125 vaccines, if successful, would be ideal for countries or regions where distribution is difficult. Nineteen vaccines will only require a single dose, while three can be administered orally. All oral candidates are in Phase 1 of clinical trials, which test for their safety. In all, 34 candidate vaccines have cleared the first two stages.
A wider pool of vaccines is positive over the long term. However, increasing the supply of available vaccines is a more pressing issue, including India, which is set to reopen vaccine exports soon.
lose momentum
India has so far delivered 926 million doses, second only to China. But the pace of vaccination has been falling over the past two weeks. In the week ending October 6, it delivered 6.1 million average daily doses, two-thirds of the pace a month earlier and the slowest dose since the third week of August. India has so far given 65.9 doses per 100 population.
So far, nine states and union territories have given more than 1,000 doses per 1,000 population. Of these, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only two with a population of more than 10 million. Himachal Pradesh has given 1,146 doses per 1,000 people while Kerala has given 1,017 doses. Delhi and Gujarat are ranked third and fourth with 997 doses and 985 doses respectively. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are behind the rest of the country with 471 doses and 475 doses per 1,000 population respectively.
matching transition
Kerala still accounts for 56% of the country’s total new cases. While all its 14 districts have recorded a decline in cases in the past one week, this is the first time the cases have started rising after Onam festival. Seven states reported an increase in cases this week, with only Maharashtra and Mizoram reporting a significant increase. Due to the reconciliation exercise on October 4, there has been a 20.8 per cent increase in cases in Maharashtra since last week. As a result, 12 of its 36 districts saw an increase, with Palghar reporting 1,070 cases, a three-fold increase over the previous week.
Mizoram has been reporting an increasing number of cases for 17 consecutive weeks, even though its growth has slowed to 3.3% in the last one week. The capital district of Aizawl accounts for 61 per cent of Mizoram’s total cases, up from 64 per cent last week. Cases in Saiha and Serchhip fell at least 15% this week to 507 and 420 respectively.
decreasing deaths
India reported 1,789 Covid-related deaths last week, the first time since the third week of March that its death toll fell below 2,000. Eighteen states and union territories have seen fewer deaths this week than last week. Four reported no change, while eight had zero deaths.
Kerala had the highest number of deaths (846), followed by Maharashtra (351). While Kerala reported 8.6% fewer deaths this week, Maharashtra registered a marginal increase of 1.2%. However, six out of 14 districts in Kerala have reported more deaths than last week. The death toll in Alappuzha doubled to 124. In Maharashtra, seven districts reported more deaths this week – five of them – in Amravati, Latur, Nagpur, Raigad and Sindhudurg, with less than 5 deaths each. In Satara and Solapur, the deaths doubled to 52 and 44 respectively.
Avoiding the third wave with rapidly increasing vaccination is the most important way to prevent more deaths.
(howindialives.com There is a database and search engine for public data)
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