Withthe state getting an allocation of only 3.30 lakh vaccines for the 18+ categoryfrom the Serum Institute of India for the month of May, Punjab Chief MinisterCaptain Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered 70% of the doses to be reserved forindividuals with co-morbidities, and the remaining 30% to high-risk category ofemployees and workers in this age group.
Chairinga high-level virtual review meeting, the Chief Minister announced that withinthese groups, district-wise allocation has also been prioritised based onpopulation index, mortality and density. Given the severe supply constraints, it has been decided to limit thevaccination for 18-44 age group in this phase to major urban centres, he said,expressing concern over the fact that even for the 45+ age group, the state wasin short supply, as a result of which only a few vaccine centres were currentlyfunctioning.
Thestate expects 2 lakh doses to arrive tomorrow for vaccination of 45+ category.Of the 3346500 Covishield doses received so far, a total of 32910450 havealready been utilised.
Inthe 18-44 age group, for the month of May, the maximum allocation of 50% hasbeen prioritised for Group A of the most affected districts of SAS Nagar,Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda and Patiala. Another 30% has beenreserved for the Group B districts of Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SBS Nagar,Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur, while 20% will be utilised in the otherdistricts that have the least cases at present. , Allocation has been madeproportionate to the population of major urban areas of Zones A and B, whilefor Zone C, an equal distribution of doses across has been allocated for eachdistrict.
Thesedecisions have been taken in accordance with the vaccine strategy recommendedby the state’s Vaccine Expert Committee for May, an official spokesperson saidafter the meeting. The committee recommended that when further doses areavailable or as the epidemiologic situation changes, the prioritisationframework may be modified. The committee comprises Dr Gagandeep Kang, Dr JacobJohn and Dr Rajesh Kumar.
Acceptingthe recommendations of the committee, the Chief Minister approved expansion ofthe list of comorbidities to include obesity (BMI>30), disabilities (e.g.spinal cord injury) and multiple co-morbidities determined to increase risk bya treating physician, in addition to those specified by the central government.He pointed out that since individuals with co-morbidities are at highest riskof severe disease and deaths, it was imperative to vaccinate them on priority.
Forthe remaining 30%, the Chief Minister said that while the strategic roadmapcontains a list of professions at risk, given the limitation of vaccineavailability, for the month of May, the top three categories have been chosen.These are: i) government employees, ii) construction workers, iii) teachers andother staff at government and private educational establishments, all of whomhave a greater interactions with other individuals and are highest risk ofinfection and transmission.
Itmay be noted that the Government of Punjab has placed an immediate order of 30lakh doses with Serum Institute of India Ltd. for 18-44 category, but has beeninformed that the allocation will be 3.30 lakh doses only for the 18–44-yearage group for the month of May 2021.
Toboost supplies, the Vaccine Expert Committee has recommended that increaseddoses be sought in partnership with private sector and other sources, forallocation of available doses in May. It has also suggested that the stategovernment initiate a consultation with national and international vaccineexperts to recommend the dosing strategy for Covishield and possibly other vaccines,given the international experience with expanding population coverage and itsimpact.
Further,the Committee has recommended development of a plan for evaluation of vaccineeffectiveness for prioritized groups, those with co-morbidities, and the generalpopulations. This will be valuable in designing further control efforts and maybe done in conjunction with infectious disease modelling for the state, theCommittee stressed.