Vaccination score tops 8 mn as new rules take effect

Monday number 2.5 times the daily average

India administered a record 8.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines on Monday — about 2.5 times the weekly average of 3.2 million shots a day — as the central government-led “free for all” vaccination drive kicked off.

With increased supplies, more centres, and walk-in registrations allowed under the revised guidelines, the vaccination numbers have seen a surge in many states, including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh.

At this pace of daily vaccinations, the entire adult population in the country can be inoculated by December 2021-January 2022, according to estimates. The government is also hopeful of an improved supply situation from July onwards. Three-fourths of the total supplies are now available for the Centre, and the remaining are for the private sector.

Population, disease burden, progress of vaccination, and vaccine wastage are among the main criteria for the allocation of vaccines to states.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government would buy 75 per cent of all vaccines from manufacturers and distribute them for free to states.

Around 50 million people have already got two doses of the vaccine. Another 170 million people have got one dose. The government will need to administer another 1.63 billion vaccine doses to vaccinate the entire adult population, which is estimated to be around 865 million.

The data on CO-WIN portal showed that the highest number of vaccinations was done in Madhya Pradesh on Monday. The state more than trebled its vaccination rate to over 1.5 million doses from its maximum daily rate of 500,000 doses so far, according to state officials.

Madhya Pradesh had received 1.9 million doses from the Centre for the first day of vaccination under the revised guidelines, as against its demand for 2 million. “The response has been unprecedented...we have also increased the number of centres to

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10,000-12000, including drive-throughs, which would remain open till 10 pm,” said Santosh Shukla, state immunisation officer.

The second-highest vaccinations were held in Karnataka, which administered 1.06 million doses in a single day, followed by Uttarpradesh, which gave out 674,557 doses on Monday. UP expects to vaccinate 1 million people a day from July 1. However, West Bengal is among the states that have complained of vaccine shortage. The state is focusing on vaccinating priority groups only till availability improves. West Bengal has the capacity to increase vaccinations to 500,000 a day, but is administering 200,000-300,000 doses a day due to the shortage. “Once we complete the priority groups, we will decide on the 18-plus,” Ajay Chakraborty, director of health services, West Bengal, said. The state administered over 188,000 doses on Monday. Maharashtra has been giving priority to the 30-44 age group and plans to start vaccinating the 18-plus lot from Tuesday, after a hiatus of several weeks. In Mumbai, the total number of vaccinations for 18 years and above has crossed 1 million, of which 90 per cent has happened through private vaccination sites. The Delhi government said the Centre’s vaccination campaign was only for advertisements and announcements. “The reality is that Delhi has not been supplied even a single dose today, when a universal campaign was supposed to be launched,” Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi Marlena said. Delhi has only five days of Covaxin stock and 57 days of Covishield stock.