18 days, 4 million people: How India continues super run of fastest vaccination drive in the world

In just 18 days after rolling out the largest vaccination drive, India has succeeded in vaccinating more than 4 million healthcare workers. Vaccination drive was started in India on January 16 this year and as of February 4, 2021, as many as 44,49,552 healthcare workers have received their first vaccine jab. The data was shared by the Ministry of Health and family Welfare. The ministry noted that in the last 24 hours, 3,10,604 new workers have also been vaccinated. Till February 2, India touched the 4-million mark in terms of vaccination and this was achieved in just 18 days, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said in a tweet. This is the fastest vaccination done across the world.

According to the data shared by Vardhan, the United States touched the 4-million mark in 20 days followed by Israel and the UK in 39 days. To be sure, India has vaccinated around 48 per cent of around 92.61 lakh health workers that have been enrolled from the public and private healthcare facilities.

The vaccination programme in its first phase is focusing on more than 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers who have been battling with the pandemic for long now. However, with the initiation of the vaccination drive against the novel Coronavirus, many healthcare workers have been skeptical about the side-effects of the vaccine. Many people also witnessed the AEFI (adverse effects following immunization) leading to others not willing to vaccinations. However, the government has claimed that the confidence is building among people.

“The number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day has shown a progressive increase,” said the health ministry. Meanwhile, as far as numbers are concerned, Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated the highest number of beneficiaries crossing 4.63 lakh. This is 51 per cent of the state’s total listed beneficiaries. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan all have vaccinated more than 3 lakh beneficiaries. As many as six states have vaccinated more than 2.5 lakh healthcare workers.

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As on 3rd February, 2021, till 8 AM, more than 41 lakh (41,38,918) beneficiaries have received the vaccination under the countrywide COVID19 vaccination exercise. pic.twitter.com/3DWPYPRQkU

— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) February 3, 2021