A Stanford University report states that India was able to save more than 3.4 million lives by conducting a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive on an unprecedented scale.
The Covid vaccination drive also created a positive economic impact by preventing losses of USD 18.3 billion, said a working paper titled ‘Healing the Economy: Estimating the Economic Impact on India’s Vaccination and Related Issues’ by Stanford University and the Institute for Competitiveness by Union Health Issued. Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday.
Mandaviya said that long before the government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency World The World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020 had established processes and structures to dedicatedly focus on different aspects of pandemic management.
he literally addressed ‘the’ India Interactive session on economic impact of vaccination and related matters.
“India under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji adopted a ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approach in a proactive, proactive and graded manner, thus adopting a holistic response strategy for effective management of COVID-19,” the minister said.
The dialogue was organized by the Institute for Competitiveness and US-Asia technology Management Center, Stanford University.
The paper discusses the role of prevention as a measure to contain the spread of the virus. This highlights that a bottom-up approach, as opposed to a top-down approach, was crucial in containing the virus.
In addition, the report notably notes that strong measures at the grassroots level, such as contact tracing, mass testing, home quarantine, distribution of essential medical equipment, improving health care infrastructure and engaging with stakeholders at the central, state and district levels The constant coordination between the two not only helped in containing the spread of the virus but also in augmenting the health infrastructure.
It elaborates on the three cornerstones of India’s strategy – prevention, relief package and vaccine administration.
It observes that these three measures were crucial in saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19, maintaining livelihoods and ensuring economic activity by developing immunity against the virus.
The working paper further states that India was able to save more than 3.4 million lives by undertaking a nationwide vaccination drive on an unprecedented scale.
It said that the vaccination campaign was always on saving lives. However, the campaign also produced a positive economic impact by preventing losses of US$18.3 billion.
Taking into account the cost of the vaccination campaign, the country got a net benefit of US$ 15.42 billion, the report said.
Acknowledging the decision of early lockdown by the Prime Minister as a turning point, Mandaviya said that it has enabled the government to implement its five-pronged strategy namely Test, Track, Treat, Vaccinate, Follow-up to implement the COVID Appropriate Behavior (CAB). enabled us to take advantage of community feedback. and a rapid and robust institutional response to combat COVID-19.
He said the government focused on augmenting health infrastructure in terms of COVID related beds, medicines, logistics i.e. N-95 masks, PPE kits and medical oxygen, as well as upgrading human resources through centers of excellence and digital solutions such as eSanjeevani telemedicine service, Aarogya Setu, COVID-19 India Portal etc.
Equal weightage was given to ramping up the testing infrastructure at an unprecedented rate exceeding the landmark figure of 917.8 million tests. Additionally, a network of 52 laboratories for genomic surveillance was set up to monitor emerging variants of the virus.
Carrying forward the momentum, the Health Minister said, India launched the world’s largest vaccination drive, achieving 97% coverage for the first dose and 90% for the second dose, administering a total of 2.2 billion doses to eligible beneficiaries Went.
He said the campaign was focused on equal coverage for all, so vaccines were provided free of cost to all citizens.
“The campaign and digital tools such as ‘Har Ghar Dastak’, mobile vaccination teams as well as the Co-WIN vaccine management platform were launched to ensure last-mile delivery,” Mandaviya said.
He said that a defining factor in the success of pandemic management was the removal of fear, misinformation and managing information in the community through targeted information, education and communication.
The Stanford University report reflected that the benefits of vaccination outweighed its costs and suggested that vaccination should be considered a macroeconomic stabilization indicator as opposed to just a health intervention.
It added, “The cumulative lifetime earnings of lives saved through vaccination (in the working age group) has reached US$21.5 billion.”
“The development of the vaccine (COVAXIN and Covishield) helped the country fight the deadly onslaught of the virus and not only vaccinated a large number of people but also reduced the burden on the health system,” the report said. Mandaviya said that the relief package by the government for people catering to the welfare needs of vulnerable groups, old age population, farmers, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), women entrepreneurs and also ensured support for their livelihood.
He further added, “With the help of schemes launched to support the MSME sector, 10.28 million MSMEs were supported, resulting in an economic impact of USD 100.26 billion, which is about 4.90% of the GDP. “
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