Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
Vaccination is the only way to prevent the potential COVID-19 4th wave.Do not delay taking all the doses of the vaccine,urged Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar.
Speaking at a press conference at Karnataka BJP HQ Jagannatha Bhavana,he said,predictive studies opine that the 4th wave to COVID-19 will start in June-July and last till September. Karnataka is prepared to face it, he said.
He further said that there is no need to worry as of now.He said that the new XE variant of COVID-19 is prominent in 8 countries and people arriving from that country are being screened he said.
Answering to a question,he said that mask is still essential and there will be no relaxation but said that there is no need to worry about the 4th wave.
5000 children in the age group 6-12 who are not yet eligible for vaccine will be tested.
Speaking about India’s vaccination progress, Minister Sudhakar pointed that many vaccines previously given to kids reached India a long time after they were available elsewhere in the world.
I don’t want to bring politics in this collective fight against pandemic,but people should know this. During the last 70 years when other parties ruled, vaccines came much later to India compared to the rest of the world.
Hepatitis B vaccine was introduced across the world in 1985 but came to India only by 2005. Compared to the rest of the world,BCG vaccine came 20-25 years later and Japanese Encephalitis vaccine come 45 years later.
However, the first covid case was found on January 30 2020 and within a year, by January 16, 2021 India had introduced the vaccine,Minister Sudhakar said.
Today,10 vaccines have been approved and are available in India and it is a proud thing that among them is one home grown vaccine, the Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech.
Other vaccines are Covishield vaccine developed by Pune based Serum Institute of India who had tied up with Oxford University and AstraZeneca, Corbevax, Zydus Cadilla which is the world’s first DNA vaccine,Minister Sudhakar said.
The Minister said that India approached Pfizer and Moderna initially expecting that our vaccines may take time.
They agreed to provide the vaccine.But they refused to take any responsibility or liability if something happens to our people.
Our government was not willing to compromise with people’s lives,and we decided to not provide the licence unless they agreed to take liability.
Minister Sudhakar said that it is a matter of pride that we have given over 185 crore doses,which is second highest only to China,while there still is hesitation to take the vaccine in other countries including USA.
He further pointed out the that PM Modi’s farsightedness was the reason India, which is a federal country and many political parties in power, could manage the pandemic.
He further said that as a country, we had to start facing COVID-19 with a health system that was not built sufficiently for the past 70 years.
However,since the pandemic began, in just 2 years, our health system has grown 4-5 times,” he said.
Minister Sudhakar said that in the previous pandemics such as the Spanish Flu and Bubonic Plague,more people died out of hunger rather than the disease.
He quickly pointed out that keeping in mind consequences of the past pandmeics,PM Modi introduced the “PM Garib Kalyan Yojana”where food grains are being distributed for free to 80 crore people across the country since last 2 years.
Speaking about Karnataka,The Health Minister stated that under the leadership of Former Chief Minister Yediyurappa and Current Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai,10.54 crore vaccines are administered in the state.
The second dose of the vaccine has been taken by 98% of the people and another 32 lakh people are yet to take the second dose.
He urged people to take the second dose and also the precautionary dose at the earliest.
He said that some might have become complacent and negligent as the third wave which was severe in some countries was relatively not too harmful in our country.
He reiterated that COVID-19 hadn’t ended and could keep returning as different variants like the recently increasing cases of the XE variant.
He stressed that the only way to deal with this is to get all the doses of vaccine.
The minister continued and pointed out that despite the size of India, the vaccinations were free.
I have to point out that PM Modi has done a phenomenal job by providing free vaccine to 135 crore people.
No other country has done this. In USA the vaccines cost around Rs 3000 to 4000.
In Japan,UK France,Italy etc whose population is just as much as some of our states, the vaccines ranged between Rs 2000-5000.
India,being such a huge country provided free vaccines which is proud thing,Minister Sudhakar said.
In addition to this, we have also supplied vaccines to 40 other countries which are below the poverty line which has increased India’s recognition and respect.
Once Socrates said,A king should be a philosopher,’ our PM has really handled this like a philosopher,Minister Sudhakar said.
He pointed out that when the COVID-19 pandemic began, there weren’t enough masks or PPE kits in India and it had to be imported from China.
After PM Modi’s call for India to be Atmanirbhar and produce all of the equipment locally,in just a mater of 3-4 months, over 18-20 companies started in Karnataka itself,the Minister said.
He further said that companies that produce ventilators and other equipment was also established in this period.
Sudhakar stated that COVID-19 required a lot more oxygen than ever before and stated that PM Modi had approved 243 oxygen plants and 233 of them had already been commissioned.
mIn other times not even 10% of the oxygen which was required during the second wave is actually needed.
We increased oxygen plants and several countries came forward to provide oxygen to us.
Many in the opposition questioned why we gave vaccines to other countries when we needed them. Now, because of this, these countries came to India’s aid and gave us oxygen,” Minister Sudhakar said.
He stated that there is a VIP culture in India and those who have money will be able to access whatever is new.
He continued to say that PM Modi did not allow this to happen in vaccination drive and instead prioritised the vaccination and COVID-19 warriors who had selflessly cared of others by risking themselves and their families.Then came the vulnerable population who are aged above 60.
Sudhakar again pointed out that in developed countries still use chits and other paper-based method through the vaccination process.
But India however, made the entire process digital with Co-Win platform.Around 50 countries are willing to use this technology, he said.
Currently, vaccines are being given to kids aged 12 and Minister Sudhakar urged parents to get their children vaccinated. Some opposition parties played politics using vaccine.
They scared one section saying that the vaccine was made using pigs.They made criticisms that it would take 4 years to complete the vaccination and were uncooperative.Even in the midst of this, our determination was not shaken.
Minister Sudhakar stated that the way PM Modi handled that entire situation was worthy of becoming a case study.
Only vaccination can manage COVID-19.
On January 16, 2021,vaccination began at a time across the nation. COVID-19 entered India in March 2020 and nobody had any idea about how deadly the virus was including the medical community.
PM Modi realized that vaccination is the only solution out of this and provided all kinds of material and moral support required for the development of the vaccine.
He handled everything comprehensively and successfully.India is a country with a population of 135 crore.An addition to this,there are illiterate and poor people.
Many opined that lakhs will die on streets but this didn’t happen.During the lockdown, it was a surprise that a country of 135 was successfully locked down, it is just unimaginable.
PM Modi always stayed in touch with CMs and monitored the situation,” the Minister said.
