18+ Age Group Struggles To Find Vaccination Slots, Odisha’s Inoculation Strategy Gives A Glimmer Of Hope?

Covid Vaccination: Rapidly rising cases, shortage of beds, people gasping for breath due to low availability of oxygen cylinders, gloom and despair after losing loved ones, and saving ourselves from the virus is the grim picture we have witnessed for over months now. While top medical experts and the Ministry of Health have advised that vaccination is the best way to keep yourself safe from the brutal Coronavirus, the bigger battle for the youth now is to find a slot for the ‘much-awaited Covid vaccine’.

The Modi government announced that the third phase of vaccination which aims at inoculating the 18+ will commence from May 1st, 2021. While the decision was much celebrated among the people and gave a sigh of relief, the states revealed the ground reality citing the non-availability of vaccines.

While most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand have failed to begin vaccination drive for 18+ even today, the inoculation centres at Delhi, Maharashtra and almost all the states either have vaccines for 45+ or the slots for 18+ are already ‘booked’ due to low availability.

What is Odisha’s vaccination strategy and should other states follow suit?

The Naveen Patnaik government has decided that the vaccination for 18-45 years age group in Odisha will first begin in five urban centres of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Berhampur that have reported a high Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR). While Odisha is also receiving a limited amount of vaccines it has strategised that residents in the 18-44 years age group will be vaccinated at government centres between 8 AM to 1 PM at Bhubaneswar while those above 45 years have been slotted between 3 PM and 6 PM which gives both the age groups equal opportunity to get inoculated.

From May 1st to May 9th, social media exploded with responses from the 18+ age group citing the issues from not getting an OTP to the non-availability of slots.

Some even came up with strategies and excel sheets to book a slot and many compared it with the struggle of booking a train ticket from IRCTC. 

Though Netizens posted their hilarious take on failing to register the vaccine slots, the reason behind this ‘fastest finger first’ game is that there are not enough vaccines ready to carry out the vaccination programme at an earlier pace. Thus, state governments and private hospitals have been struggling to vaccinate not just young people but even those that had become eligible earlier.

According to a report by The Print, since 1 May, when vaccinations opened up for younger age groups starting from 18 years, just 11.81 lakh of the estimated 59 crore population that became eligible (according to an affidavit filed by the government in the Supreme Court) received the shot, as of 7 May.

What’s more, India’s overall vaccination numbers have been on a steep downward spiral. The daily report card, which in some days of April saw vaccination tallies cross the 40 million mark, now shows half that number, often times dipping even further. Thursday, which was Day 111 of the national vaccination drive, saw 23,70,298 vaccine doses being given over a 24-hour period. Of these 2,67,054 were given to the 18-44 years age group.

It is pertinent to note that the 18+ age group are people who are the bread earners of their family and are most likely to go out considering their jobs and lockdown which is already hampering their income. Needless to say auto, cab drivers, vegetable vendors, young delivery personnel are generally from the same group who have been exempted from restrictions in most states.

So the question arises if the other state governments should rethink their vaccination strategy and prioritise the 18+ age group to curb the spread of the virus as the Central govt has already claimed that the issue is not of supply but the planning in states as the states have adequate amount but the vaccine wastage and appropriate distribution is the actual obstacle.