Lockdown ineffective, mass vaccination is the only hope, says the report

Lockdown ineffective, mass vaccination is the only hope, says the report

Lockdown ineffective, mass vaccination is the only hope, says the report

The second COVID wave in India is likely to last for up to 100 days, starting from February 15, and is all set to peak by the second half of April, stated a report released by SBI on Thursday. However, the report said India is better positioned this time to control the pandemic with vaccinations gaining pace.

According to the report from SBI's research team, authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, the bank's chief economic adviser, increasing the speed of vaccination is the only way to win the battle against COVID-19 pandemic, adding that localised lockdowns/restrictions have not resulted in controlling the spread of infection. "Lockdown ineffective, mass vaccination is the only hope. This is visible in case of many states including Maharashtra and Punjab," it said.

"India is witnessing a second wave of infection beginning February 2021, with daily new cases rising again. Pan-India total cases in the second wave are expected in the order of 25 lakhs (based on trends in data till 23-Mar). Considering the number of days from the current level of daily new cases to the peak level during the first wave, India might reach the peak in the second half of April," the report said.

"Though global COVID-19 experience shows second wave much higher in intensity than the first wave, the presence of vaccines makes the difference now. Thus India will be able to manage the situation better," the report noted.

India added over one lakh coronavirus infections in just two days with 53,476 new cases in a span of 24 hours, the highest single day rise so far this year, pushing the nationwide COVID-19 tally of cases to 1,17,87,534, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday

The report noted that states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Uttarakhand and Haryana have vaccinated more than 20 per cent of their elderly population (above 60 years).

Several states with higher elderly population (>60 years) including Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have vaccinated less percentage of their elderly population and must increase their pace of inoculation

If we assume more number of people are willing to take vaccines and the daily vaccine inoculation increases to 40-45 lakhs from the current maximum level of 34 lakhs, then with this capacity we can vaccinate our population above 45 years in 4 months from now



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