Have routine childhood vaccine administration rates reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels? A hospital registry-based study from North India

Abstract

Background: In many nations, including India, the COVID-19 outbreak hampered routine immunization (RI) services. Information about how a lockdown affects immunization rates is available; however, there is a dearth of published information about immunization rates after the lockdown. Aims and Objectives: To study the bearing of COVID‐19 pandemic on immunization and, with the pandemic under control, to access whether India is getting back on track with its nationwide RI program. Materials and Methods: A hospital registry-based retrospective observational study was performed. Data were collected from February 2019 until June 2022. The vaccine administration rates in 2019 were considered as baseline. Comparisons of changes in vaccination rates for different periods were done using the “N-1” Chi-squared test on the online statistical software MedCalc. Results: As compared to March until May 2019, there was a decline of 27% in the administration of birth doses, a 28% decline in other doses, and a 33% decline in maternal doses of tetanus in the year 2020. From March to May 2021, birth doses showed a decline of 32% as compared to 2019, whereas other doses showed an increase of 25%. In the same months of 2022, birth doses have still not reached pre-COVID-19 levels (a decline of 10%), though administration of other doses has almost doubled. Conclusion: We thus conclude that a significant drop in RI administration rates at our immunization clinic and vaccine administration rates did not achieve pre-COVID-19 levels as of 2022.