Editor’s Pick: amid a spike, welcome news on vaccines

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday announced two welcome bits of news. First, that the Covid-19 vaccine programme for the older population (over 50 years) is expected to start soon and that the immunisation programme would now see greater private sector participation.

Mr Bhushan was responding to a query at a health ministry press conference, where he noted that of the approximately 10,000 hospitals being used for administering vaccines in a day, 2,000 hospitals are private. In the coming days, more private sector hospitals will be utilised to increase the vaccination coverage and speed, he said. It has been noted in recent weeks that one of the reasons for the slow progress of the vaccine rollout in India is the low participation of private sector health infrastructure and resources.

Additionally, the Health Secretary said that the Ministry had sent Central teams to some States that have shown a surge in COVID-19 cases recently to analyse the reasons for the spike in cases. From a peak of 98,000 daily cases reported in September last year, the number of new cases reported per day in India has seen a slow but steady decline to reach below 12,000 in mid-February. But the trajectory of the curve began to reverse in the past week following a spike in cases in a few States — Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra is particularly of concern where, from less than 3,000 daily cases, the numbers have been increasing, particularly so in the past week to touch nearly 7,000 on February 21.

These numbers clearly mark a new spike and measures are already being taken against it. We report today that the Delhi government is set to mandate that people travelling to the national capital from these five states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab — will have to show a negative RT-PCR test report for COVID-19 till March 15. It is in this context that the news of vaccinations potentially starting soon for the elederly population is important, as is the increased participation of private hospitals. That makes this story our top pick of the day.

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