The Union Health Ministry said that more than 75 lakh vaccine doses were administered across the country until the evening as the Centre’s ‘Revised Guidelines for Covid Vaccination’ kicked off today, in which all adults will be given free anti-Covid jabs.
“World’s largest vaccine drive blazes ahead, firing on all cylinders. A record-breaking 47 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses administered so far on Day 1 of implementation of revised guidelines of our vaccination drive,” the minister tweeted.
The centre started providing vaccines free of charge to all above 18 from today and took back control of vaccination from states, reversing a policy change that was enforced just about a month ago.
Private hospitals, on the other hand, will continue to purchase 25% of the overall vaccination stock. If they want to get vaccinated at a non-government medical facility, this implies some beneficiaries will have to pay for their vaccines.
Since the vaccination programme began on January 16, this is the biggest number of shots provided in a single day. COVID-19 immunisation coverage in India has now reached roughly 28.7 crore people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the individuals who received the vaccine as well as the healthcare staff who worked tirelessly to guarantee that a large number of people were protected against the terrible virus.
He said today’s 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 front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!” PM Modi wrote on Twitter.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had strived to achieve a big target today, which the state did by vaccinating around 15 lakh people.
Similarly, Karnataka vaccinated more than 10 lakh people. UP, Gujarat, Haryana were other leaders who vaccinated around 5 lakh people each.
Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi on the other hand were not able to cross even 1 lakh vaccinations.
The previous high of 4.5 million doses was set on April 5, followed by a significant drop to below 3 million doses on an average daily basis.
According to experts, India will need to provide 10 million doses every day in order to reach its goal of vaccinating 950 million adults by December. India has vaccinated less than 5% of the population with two doses so far.
Over the last 24 hours, India reported 53,256 infections, 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.
