The Covid-19 drive undertaken by India and the lockdowns to prevent its spread saved more than 34 lakh lives and prevented a loss of over 18 Billion US Dollars, a report by Stanford University has said.
The working paper by Stanford University and Institute for Competitiveness titled ‘Healing the Economy: Estimating the Economic Impact on India’s Vaccination and Related Issues’ was released by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday, February 24.
Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister Mandaviya shared that India has carried out the largest vaccination campaign in history, providing over 2.2 billion doses to people over the age of 12 with 97 percent coverage of the first dose and 90 percent coverage of the second dosage.
He further said, “Much before Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency by World Health Organization (WHO) in Jan 2020, processes and structures to focus dedicatedly on various facets of pandemic management were put in place. India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted a ‘Whole of Government’ & ‘Whole of Society’ approach in a proactive, preemptive and graded manner thus adopting a holistic response strategy, for effective management of Covid-19.”
The report said the vaccination prevented a total loss of $18.3 billion, with the net benefit standing at $15.4 billion after accounting for the cost of the vaccination drive. The report reflected that the benefits of vaccination exceeded its cost and suggested that vaccination should be considered a macroeconomic stabilizing indicator and not just a health intervention.
According to the Stanford report, the direct and total impact of vaccination varied from about $ 1.03 billion to $ 2.58 billion if minimum wages are considered within the age distribution category.
“The same, however, varied from about $3.49 billion to $ 8.7 billion if GDP per person employed (constant) is considered. The cumulative lifetime earnings of the lives saved through vaccination (in the working age group) rolled up to $ 21.5 billion. Moreover, since vaccination also saved the lives of the elderly, this indirectly helped prevent the health infrastructure from getting overwhelmed and thereby allowing for more judicious use of the existing health infrastructure,” the report suggested.
India started the administration of Covid-19 vaccines on 16 January 2021. As of January 2023, India has administered over 2.2 billion doses overall, with over 95% of the population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
