The number Covid-19 vaccine doses administered today in the country created a record, as the number crossed 1 crore (10 million) for the first time. According to the latest data provided in the CoWIN portal, the total doses administered today was 1,02,06,475, which is expected to go up further later in the night.
With this, the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses given in India has crossed 62 crore, the second-highest in the world after China.
1 crore doses of vaccine administered in a day is a very significant achievement. This is more than the population of over 100 countries in the world.
While the vaccination in the country had started at a slower rate, largely due to the availability of doses, it has picked up in the last two months. The daily average vaccination in the country has gone up substantially since 21st June, the date from when the union govt took the responsibility of all citizens above 18 years of age.
Before that, as the non-NDA ruled state governments had demanded independence in the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, the central govt had tasked states with vaccinating people in the 18 to 44 years age group, while the central govt was vaccinating Indians above 45 years of age for free. But due to the global shortage of vaccines, the state governments could not procure enough vaccines, resulting in low vaccinations. After that, the central govt had decided to vaccinate everyone aged above 18 years for free, while also allowing private hospitals to run vaccinations against payments.
21 June had seen a record vaccination of over 86 doses in a single day. Since then, daily vaccinations are hovering between around 40 lakh to 80 lakh per day, barring holidays. On 16th August, that record was broken and the 90 lakh mark was crossed, when 92.39 doses were administered in a single day.
And now in just 11 days, the record has been again broken, with more than 1 crore doses in a single day. The Country is consistently administering above 50 lakh doses per day for the last several weeks, signifying the acceleration in the inoculation programme.
More than 14 crore people have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far, while more than 48 crore people have received the first dose. Uttar Pradesh leads with 6.97 crore total doses and more than 29 lakh doses administered today. UP is followed by Maharashtra (5.63 crore), Gujarat (4.5 crore), Madhya Pradesh (4.46 crore) and Rajasthan (4.22 crore)
India has approved six Covid-19 vaccines so far, Covishield developed by Astra Zeneca and Oxford University, Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech, Sputnik V developed in Russia, Spikevax developed by Moderna, the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, and ZyCoV-D developed by Zydus-Cadila.
The bulk of the vaccination programme in the country is dependent on Covishield and Covaxin, both made in India. The union health ministry on Friday informed that above 4.05 crore Covid vaccine doses are still available with states and Union Territories for inoculation, while more than 17.64 lakh doses are in the pipeline.
As vaccinations have picked up, the Covid-19 cases are going down in the country. India has now around 3.5 lakh active cases, with Kerala contributing 1.95 lakh cases.