Nowadays the problem of COVID-19 is at its zenith. The cases of COVID positives are increasing day by day. This pandemic has posted the problem in every sphere including social, political, economic, environmental, cultural and so on
In December 2019, the Chinese subcontinent notified the virus spreading at an alarming (Exponential Rate).
In the month of January, February and March, It spread to other countries with cases doubling within days. This Virus is the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related Coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19.
It has become extremely important to take effective measures in this regard. Since March 2020, there have been so many measures like lockdown, a social distancing that was making the headlines of the newspapers, not only in India but all over the world also.
However, In this article, we’ll discuss what is called Herd Immunity?
So, The Question which probably fascinates readers is What is Herd Immunity and How can we achieve it? Will Herd Immunity Save India?
Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to infection whether through infection or vaccination.
Let us examine the above concept in the context of Indian subcontinents. According to an estimate, India contributes only 2.4 % of the total land area of the world and only 7.98 % of global GDP.
But, it contributes 16.7% of the world’s total population. According to an estimate the population (current) of India is 137,89,00,337.
Will Herd Immunity Save India
As we have read above that for herd immunity to be achieved we need to expose 70% of the country population. If we calculate, we’ll find that 70% of India’s total population is 96,52,30,236.
One question might have arisen among the readers “Is India capable of taking such a risk?”
According to an estimate, there are about 19 lakhs beds, 95 thousand ICU beds and 48 thousand ventilators available. Most of the beds and Ventilators in India are concentrated in 7 states – UP (14.8%), Karnataka (13.8%) and Maharashtra (12.2%) Tamil Nadu (8.1%) West Bengal (5.9 %) Telangana (5.2 %) and Kerala (5.2 %).
If villages, being the heart of India and home to 68% of the population are also a part of this experiment. Consequently, a large part of the population of our villages will also be sharing the part among those who are exposed to this disease.
But the health care facilities in villages are not that appropriate.
According to a new report, there are only about 50,000 Primary Health Care Centres working in rural areas which are too few to sustain such a great risk.
The WHO said, “Death rate of the coronavirus is approx 3%”. So in the worst situation, India would be losing 3% that is 27,500,006 people in this experiment.
In conclusion, I’d just say that India with its elephantine population is not able to experiment with Herd immunity.
