NEW DELHI: World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Thursday that young, healthy people may have to wait until 2022 to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
Swaminathan also stressed that priority should be given to healthcare workers and those most at risk.
He noted that despite the many vaccine trials being carried out, rapid mass injections were unlikely, and work was still being done on organizing who would give access first should a safe vaccine be discovered.
“Most people agree, it’s starting with healthcare workers and frontline workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are most at risk, and then the elderly, and so on,” Swaminathan told The Guardian.
“There will be a lot of counseling, but I think the average person, a healthy young man, might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine,” he added.
Swaminathan hoped there would be at least one effective vaccine by 2021, but it would only be available in “limited quantities.”
Swaminathan also warned against complacency about the virus death rate, saying that with the increasing number of cases, mortality would also increase.
“Mortality increases are always a couple of weeks behind the increase in cases. We should not be satisfied that mortality rates are going down,” said the WHO chief scientist.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health said on Thursday that the doubling time for Covid-19 cases in the country has increased dramatically to 70.4 days from 25.5 days in mid-August, which is almost the triple the time it had taken before.
“This indicates a substantial drop in daily new cases and the consequent increase in the time needed to double the total cases,” the Ministry tweeted as India recorded an increase of 67,708 Covid-19 cases and 680 deaths in 24 hours, to as the count increased. to 73,07,097 cases.
Swaminathan also stressed that priority should be given to healthcare workers and those most at risk.
He noted that despite the many vaccine trials being carried out, rapid mass injections were unlikely, and work was still being done on organizing who would give access first should a safe vaccine be discovered.
“Most people agree, it’s starting with healthcare workers and frontline workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are most at risk, and then the elderly, and so on,” Swaminathan told The Guardian.
“There will be a lot of counseling, but I think the average person, a healthy young man, might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine,” he added.
Swaminathan hoped there would be at least one effective vaccine by 2021, but it would only be available in “limited quantities.”
Swaminathan also warned against complacency about the virus death rate, saying that with the increasing number of cases, mortality would also increase.
“Mortality increases are always a couple of weeks behind the increase in cases. We should not be satisfied that mortality rates are going down,” said the WHO chief scientist.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health said on Thursday that the doubling time for Covid-19 cases in the country has increased dramatically to 70.4 days from 25.5 days in mid-August, which is almost the triple the time it had taken before.
“This indicates a substantial drop in daily new cases and the consequent increase in the time needed to double the total cases,” the Ministry tweeted as India recorded an increase of 67,708 Covid-19 cases and 680 deaths in 24 hours, to as the count increased. to 73,07,097 cases.
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