Modi hails new feat; target is 1 crore everyday
On day one of the rollout of the Centre’s revised vaccination policy on Monday, a record number of 84 lakh people were vaccinated against Covid-19, short of 16 lakh jabs to achieve the Government’s target of inoculating at least 1 crore people daily to speed up the vaccination process.
Responding to the feat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening”.
“The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight Covid-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the frontline warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!” Modi tweeted.
The previous single-day highest vaccine coverage was on April 2, where 42 lakh were given the jabs. When the Government had launched the nationwide vaccination programme on January 16, it had left it to the States to procure the vaccine from the manufacturers.
India’s cumulative Covid vaccination coverage exceeded 28 crore on Sunday, as per the Union Ministry data. Several States have upped the vaccination drive by undertaking special drives. For the record, Madhya Pradesh dosed 12 lakh people, Karnataka 8.73 lakh and Uttar Pradesh 5.84 lakh, as per the latest data.
In Assam, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates within the country, the Centre launched a special drive that targets to inoculate at least 3 lakh people every day.
With limited vaccine supply, it remains to be seen if the Centre can vaccinate the same number of people (84 lakh) or more in the coming days.
Experts said that India could have avoided several deaths had it implemented the national policy in the first place.
As per the revised policy, the Centre would buy 75 per cent of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to States for inoculation.
India’s previous record of 4.5 million doses was on April 5, followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million.
Presently, domestically made doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are being offered to the people.
Over the last 24 hours, India reported 53,256 new cases, the lowest since March 24. Infections hit a peak of about 400,000 a day in May and deaths soared to around 170,000 in April-May.
More than 2.98 crore Covid vaccine doses are still available with States and Union territories, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. So far, 29,35,04,820 vaccine doses have been provided to States and Union territories (UTs) through the Centre’s free of cost channel and the direct State procurement category, it said.
Further, more than 2,310 vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by them within the next three days,” the Ministry said. It said that as part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Centre has been supporting States and UTs by providing them Covid vaccines free of cost.