Covid-19 vaccination: Despite 1 billion doses, challenges remain for India vaccination programme, check details

Even as the country is ecstatic after achieving the milestone of 100 crore Coronavirus vaccine doses, it is vital to tone down the euphoria a bit and focus dedicatedly on the task ahead. The country needs to administer another 88 crore additional vaccine doses to fully vaccinate the adult population of the country, the Indian Express reported. It is utterly significant for the country to retain the momentum and continue to vaccinate the partially vaccinated adult population and left out people with double doses of Coronavirus vaccine.

It is pertinent to note that the country on an average administered about 59 lakh doses per day in August which increased to the highest of 78 lakh doses a day in September. However, the average number of doses administered per day has come down to about 46 lakh in the first 20 days of the October month which is an issue of concern.

On Monday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had urged the state governments to accelerate the momentum of Covid-19 vaccination. Apart from retaining the momentum of vaccination drive, there are graver challenges which have persisted over a long period of time. Almost nine months since the beginning of the vaccination drive in the country, about 20 percent of people aged above 60 have not even got vaccinated with the first dose. Equally concerning is the fact that about 10.6 crore people aged above 60 years remain partially vaccinated and need to get vaccinated with the second dose for better protection. The central government has highlighted that a sizable number of partially vaccinated beneficiaries despite being eligible for the second dose are not turning up at the vaccination centres.

Cumulatively, while 74 percent of the adult population of the country has taken the first dose, only 31 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against the disease. On top of that three large states have covered a substantially lower proportion of their population compared to the national average with double vaccines including UP(18%), Bihar(21%), and West Bengal(26%). The central government as well as the state governments have indicated that special awareness programmes and initiatives will be taken to vaccinate people with the second dose of the vaccine.