India has set the record for the fastest rollout for a million vaccine shots in a short span of just six days as compared to the countries that have put out their inoculation data in the public domain. The vaccination drive in India was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16 via video conferencing. As per Health Ministry, around 1.3 million (12.7 lakh) shots of vaccine have been administered so far with 10.4 lakh inoculations having been done by January 21.
The highest number of inoculations were reportedly recorded on January 21 with over 2,30,000 health workers getting vaccinated on the day. However, about nine million health workers are yet to be vaccinated at two doses per person. The second dose of the vaccine will be administered 28 days after the first shot. India has set the target of 300 million vaccinations by the end of the summer this year.
Vaccination tally improved after changes in C-WIN app
The number of vaccinations has reportedly improved after some changes were made in the Co-WIN application that is being used by the central government to digitally manage the vaccination process. After the changes made in Co-WIN, the vaccinators can now administer vaccine shots to walk-in health workers if those scheduled for vaccination did not turn up. “The app has been modified to allow creation of more session sites, more sessions per site, and change in site location as per the local requirement. Instead of daily plan, officials concerned can now plan and schedule the sessions for the entire week”, said additional secretary, health ministry, Manohar Agnani.
India’s performance as compared to other countries
As reported by Hindustan Times, data from the University of Oxford shows that India has become the fastest country to cross the million mark in vaccination. India took only 6 days to cross the mark as compared to 9 days taken by the United States that was leading the race until now. According to Times of India, the United States had the fastest rollout of Covid-19 vaccine after its vaccination programme was launched on December 14 last year. A million inoculations were done in the US within 10 days of the launch of the vaccination drive. The UK had inoculated close to a million people by December 26, 2020, after the launch of its vaccination drive on December 8.
Taking a look at the number of inoculations done globally as on January 21, around 17.5 million vaccine shots had been administered in the US, followed by China with around 15 million inoculations, 5.4 million vaccinations in the UK, 3.3 million vaccinations in Israel, 2.3 million doses in the UAE, 1.4 million doses in Germany, 1.3 million vaccinations in Italy, 1.1 million doses in Turkey and 1.1 million vaccinations in Spain. In total, around 57 million vaccine shots had been administered globally till January 21, 2021.
India extending support globally
India has been sending shipments of free Covid-19 vaccine to several South Asian countries as part of its commitment to help the global community. The US State Department praised India today for its generous gesture. In the last couple of days, India has sent 1.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Bhutan, 1 lakh doses to Maldives, 20 lakh doses to Bangladesh, 15 lakh doses to Myanmar, 10 lakh doses to Nepal, 50,000 doses to Seychelles, 1 lakh doses to Mauritius. Brazil expressed gratitude yesterday after receiving the shipment of vaccines. South Africa and Saudi Arabia are expected to receive the shipments of Covid-19 vaccine from India in coming days.