India on Friday administered a record 10,064,376 COVID-19 vaccine doses. COVID-19 vaccination coverage in India has crossed 62,17,06,882 doses, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. However, only about 15% of adults have been fully vaccinated so far amid efforts by the government to ramp up the inoculation drive in wake of warnings about a third COVID-19 wave peaking in the country around October.
How India’s vaccination drive has fared so far
In January, India became the fastest country to reach 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations in six days, according to the Health Ministry.
“We achieved this within 6 days, US did this in 10 days, Spain in 12 days, Israel in 14 days, UK in 18 days, Italy in 19 days, Germany in 20 days and UAE in 27 days,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said at the time.
The country was the second-fastest to complete 10 million COVID-19 vaccinations in 34 days against the 31 days it took United States to reach the milestone.
The country’s total vaccinations crossed 100 million in April over a period of 85 days. US and China reached the mark in 89 and 102 days, respectively.
ALSO READ: Vaccine equity: Rural India sees sharp rise in COVID-19 inoculations
Total number of people vaccinated
The US, India, Brazil and Russia remain the worst affected countries due to COVID-19.
A total of 136.26 million people have been fully vaccinated in India, while 331.87 million people have received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, India has vaccinated more than half of its eligible adult population( about 473 million people.)
The US has fully vaccinated 172.17 million people, while 30.79 million people are partly vaccinated, for a total figure of 202.96 million. Brazil, the third-worst affected country, has vaccinated a total of 132.2 million with 58.49 million fully vaccinated against the infection and 73.72 million partly vaccinated. Russia’s total number of COVID-19 vaccinated people-42.98 million- include 35.45 million fully vaccinated and 7.54 partially vaccinated.
ALSO READ: Vaccine equity: Rural India sees sharp rise in COVID-19 inoculations
‘Momentous Feat’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to celebrate the “momentous feat” and thanked those who were getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success.
The previous high of vaccines in day stood at 8.82 million doses on August 16. About 6.9 million vaccine doses were administered on average across the country every day for the past week, the highest pace of the inoculation drive ever recorded in the country since the launch of the mass vaccination programme against coronavirus on January 16.
Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates were among those who hailed India’s efforts to vaccinate its populatiin.
“Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved,” Swaminathan said in a tweet. “Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!”
Gates said the “tremendous milestone” was the result of the collective efforts of the government, the research and development (R&D) community, vaccine manufacturers, and health workers.
