India’s COVID-19 Vaccination Drive: Status Update

India’s vaccination drive which began on 16th January 2021 has gone through some thick and thin but now it is progressing at a great pace. A total of about 5.77 crore people have been vaccinated so far. PM Modi recently held a meeting to assess the progress on the vaccination drive across the country and viewing the development he expressed his satisfaction with the process and pace of the vaccination drive. He said that India’s Covid vaccination drive “keeps gaining” momentum, and the government motto will remain “vaccines for all, free for all.”

The union health ministry also tweeted an infographic that says that India has achieved another milestone as the vaccination jabs administered in India is more than in countries like the US, the UK, Germany, France and Italy. The Prime Minister reacted to this tweet in a motivational way and congratulated each and every health care worker and all those people who stay consistent to make this possible.

The Prime Minister said that a great number of doses have been administered in the last six days which is more than the entire population of countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Moreover, he said that “128 districts in the country have vaccinated more than 50% of the 45+ population and 16 districts have vaccinated more than 90% of the 45+ population.”

The months of April and May have seen a lot of challenges including vaccine shortages. Due to this, a tweak in the vaccine procurement policy has been made. The policy states that only 25 per cent of the total vaccine production is allowed to be purchased by the states directly from manufacturers. However, this did not affect the pace and with consistent efforts, we did catch up the speed in the following weeks. Today, the weekly vaccination is touching the 2 core-mark which is a significant number.

Footnote

More innovative ways to reach people for vaccination is in the lane of implementation which will definitely help vaccination drive. If you haven’t registered yourself for the vaccination then do it as soon as you can. Keep following the safety protocols to decrease the risk of getting the virus. Stay home, stay safe!