Phase 2 of vaccination drive stuck in first gear

Rajasthan leads the way among states but vaccine uptake still far from adequate

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan is the runaway leader in the first three days of the second phase of India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, having given doses to 5,187 per million residents, although an HT analysis of data from the first three days of the expanded drive indicates a slow start across the country.

Till Wednesday night, India vaccinated a total of 949,147 people, or 712 per million in Phase 2, which covers the most vulnerable sections of the general public. The government hopes that drafting more private hospitals to administer vaccines and keeping facilities open 24x7 will help increase the numbers. The government has previously said its ultimate target in this phase is 5 million shots a day.

Delhi, which gave shots to 1,679 people per million population in the second phase till Wednesday night, was in the second spot, while Odisha (1,283 doses per million) was third.

To be sure, the per-million metric provides an easy comparison, although a more accurate denominator is the number of people over the age of 60 and over 45 with co-morbidities – a number that wasn’t immediately available for all states and Union territories. In all, the second phase of the drive is expected to cover 270 million people.

HT collated and analysed data for India’s 20 most populated states. In the national capital, 33,259 people lined up to receive jabs in first three days of Phase 2 – an average of a little over 11,000 shots a day. In contrast, the three days before the start of the second phase, when only health care workers and front-line workers were getting jabs, the city averaged 19,176 shots a day. On average, 316,382 people have received shots every day across the country under Phase 2 — this has less than halved (653,565 doses administered per day) from the three days before the opening up of the drive.

In Bihar, the fewest people showed up to get shots in the first three days of Phase 2 — only 43 doses were administered per million residents in the state.

Uttar Pradesh, with 60 shots per million, and Jharkhand (144 shots per million) accompanied it as the three worst-performing states. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh’s numbers were also skewed by their huge populations and the significant proportion of their population under the age of 18 (they are both among India’s youngest states).

The numbers account for those vaccinated in the Phase 2 of the vaccination drive, which includes persons above 60 years of age and those who are 45 years or more and suffering from certain medical conditions. Overall, 949,147 people received shots in this category across India till Wednesday evening.

On the other hand, 13 times as many (13.5 million people, or 10,118 per million population) people have received at least one shot under the first phase of the drive, which started on January 16.

Experts say there is a need to speed up the drive at least six to 10 times if the country plans to achieve its target of immunising 300 million people most at risk of exposure or death by August.