High time to accelerate vaccination process
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 11, 2021 -

COVID-19 Vaccination at Primary Health Centre, Bashikhong in Imphal on 3rd May 2021 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

WHILE increasing number of people in the state contracting Covid-19 is worrisome, the virulent disease continuing to claim scores of lives every day in the last few weeks indicates that the healthcare service providers are struggling to cope with the unprecedented situation.

Compared to the rst wave of the pandemic during which deaths were sporadic and majority of the victims were elderly people with co-morbid conditions, the current wave has been showing no mercy as is evident from the overwhelming body count across the country and state.

However, the high casualty gures in Manipur in comparison with other north-eastern states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, etc, compels one to suspect whether fatigue has been curbing the natural instinct of the medical personnel to ensure swift recovery of the patients and breathe new life into the ailing persons.

Regardless of the universal truth that ethics of the medical profession is centred on treating and saving people, it is obvious that the outbreak of the pandemic and its untameable spread for over a year now has been pushing doctors and nurses to the point of complete exhaustion.

That commitment and diligence of the healthcare professionals in tending to the needs of patients are under intense public scrutiny, especially in the aftermath of spike in fatalities, could be comprehended from chief minister N Biren visiting some general hospitals and exhorting the nurses to provide the best possible service besides urging the doctors to physically serve those ghting for their life.

Nevertheless, it is but natural that the highly transmissible characteristics of the mutated virus would make everybody, including the trained medical professionals, keep a safe distance from infected persons.

Thus, the only means to lessen the devastating impact from the invisible enemy, apart from the universally accepted Covid-19 safety protocols, is to accelerate the pace of mass vaccination.

With almost every individual nally realising that receiving the jab remains the safest bet from the pandemic, there has been heavy rush to the vaccination centres across the state with many having to return home a dejected lot due to the government-mandated limitation on the number of persons to be inoculated in a day.

Amid the public's eagerness to receive the jab, the government directing the district level medical department authorities and ocials to increase the number of targeted beneciaries from among the healthcare workers, frontline workers and citizens above 45 years of age to 150 each in all the designated Covid Vaccination Centres need to be implemented in the right earnest and most judicious manner.

Under no circumstance should the government tolerate any misdemeanour but strive to ensure that the ambitious vaccination exercise is uniform and accessible to all the eligible persons.

Taking into account of the fact that the public healthcare centres in some of the densely populated areas could no longer cope with the increasing number of vaccine seekers, the government may explore setting up of temporary vaccination centres as per concentration of population.

As substantial portion of a population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, there is no reason why the number of vaccination facilities should not be expanded, if there is no shortage of vaccine.

With jabs delivered in seconds and vaccination centres manageable by a handful of trained personnel, coupled with lakhs of citizens waiting for their turn to get inoculated, all out efforts should be made to minimise impact from the virus.