India administers 2 billion Covid jabs
At 12.16pm on Sunday, India administered 2 billionth dose of Covid-19 vaccine, nearly nine months after the country administered its billionth dose on October 21, last year, and about 18 months since the country’s massive Covid-19 immunisation programme kicked off on January 16, 2021.
“17th July 2022, a day to remember forever. #200CroreVaccinations,” tweeted Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya soon after the landmark was achieved.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated all Indians on crossing the special figure.
“India creates history again! Congrats to all Indians on crossing the special figure of 200 crore vaccine doses. Proud of those who contributed to making India’s vaccination drive unparalleled in scale and speed. This has strengthened the global fight against COVID-19,” said the Prime Minister.
The milestone in the country’s grand vaccination drive thus far comes at a time when there is a slight surge being observed in a few states of the country, and the booster dose has not really picked up.
India currently is reporting nearly 20,000 new Covid cases in a day, with states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha contributing a majority of the new cases. And 90% of the country’s population is still due its third or precaution Covid vaccine dose.
The fewer hospitalisations and deaths during the third wave that was driven by the Omicron variant of Sars-Cov-2 have been credited largely to the success of India’s Covid immunisation campaign, according to experts.
“We managed to vaccinate a substantial percentage of our population quite fast, which had an impact on keeping the overall death and hospitalisation numbers low. It has been well established that all the vaccines work in preventing severe Covid disease; in certain variants it
may work less but overall vaccines are effective. People should take their booster shot as soon as they become eligible,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, department of pulmonology and sleep medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The health ministry attributed the feat to visionary leadership of Primr Minsiter Narendra Modi.
“Proactive Strategic & policy level leadership by Hon’ble PM for effective monitoring & oversight in Covid-19 management; Collaborative environment: regular & sustained engagement with Chief Ministers & State Health Ministers; People’s participation through ‘Jan-Andolan’ & ‘ Jan- Bhagidari’; and “Make- in- India” &“Make- for-World” Strategy,” said the ministry on achieving the milestone.