Modelling the impact of perfect and imperfect vaccination strategy against SARS CoV-2 by assuming varied vaccine efficacy over India

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has swiftly spread globally and caused public health and socio-economic disruption in many countries. An epidemiological modelling studies in the susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) has played an important role for making effective public health policy to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The aim of the present study is to investigate the optimal vaccination strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic in India. METHODS: We have applied compartment mathematical model susceptible-vaccination-infectious-removed (SVIR) with different range of vaccine efficacy scenarios and predicted the population to be covered for vaccination per day in India as well as state level was performed. RESULTS: The model assumed that a vaccine has 100% efficacy, predicted that >5 million populace to be vaccinated per day to flatten the epidemic curve in India. Similarly, different vaccination mechanisms such as ‘all-or-nothing’ (AoN) and leaky vaccines does not have potential discordance in their effectiveness at higher efficacies (>70%). However, AoN vaccine was found to be marginally effective than leaky at lower efficacies (<70%) when administered at the higher coverage strategies. Further state level analyses were performed and it was found that 0.3, 0.3, 0.2 and 1 million vaccinations required per day in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra as it assumes that the vaccine efficacy is 70%. CONCLUSION: The proposed modelling approach shows a range of assumptions on the efficacy of vaccine which helps the health authorities to prioritize the vaccination strategies to prevent the transmission as well as disease.