Azim Premji assures a way of getting 500 million people to get vaccinated in just 60 days
Wipro founder Azim Premji who is an Indian business tycoon, engineer, philanthrophist and and an investor. People also call him by the name ‘Czar of the Indian IT industry’. He has received a number of prestigious awards such as Padma Bhushan, CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Outstanding Achievement award, IET faraday metal, etc. According to forbes, his net worth is around 860 crores US dollars.
HOW DOES HE THINK THAT HE CAN GET 5 CRORE PEOPLE TO GET VACCINATED IN JUST TWO MONTHS?
Recently it was found that he had been urging the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to include the private sector in the covid-19 vaccination drive in order to speed up the process. He says if the private sector is also involved in the vaccination effort, a total of about 500 million people can be vaccinated in just a span of two months. Although he has acknowledged the fact that the government has been doing the best they can in their power, he still has suggested private sector involvement as a way to speed up the vaccination process in India. He suggests a way of getting a vaccine at about Rs 300 per shot from the Serum Institute of India so that hospitals and nursing homes can administer this vaccine at a cost of Rs. 100 per shot and with about Rs. 400 per shot, he thinks mass vaccination of the total population is not impossible. Private sectors inclusion in this drive becomes important as more number of people will be eligible for the jobs.
CURRENT SITUATION OF THE COVID VACCINE IN INDIA
Currently the only two vaccines that are operational in India are-Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Although, the trials of the Sputnik vaccine (which was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology) are still going on but we surely cannot rely on that as of now. Currently, however, 1.07 crore healthcare professionals and frontline medical workers have gotten vaccinated. Not to forget, we have yet not included the people who have been reluctant into getting vaccinated.
SITUATION OF COVID-19 IN INDIA
On a not-so-positive side, the COVID-19 cases have seen to be rising in states like Punjab and Maharashtra. Some cities have also gone under a state of lockdown considering the rising COVID-19 cases on a daily basis. Almost 240 new strains of the virus have been found in India- as said by the member of Maharashtra’s COVID-19 task force, Dr. Shahshank Joshi.
