Vaccinations drop from peak as India falls short of shots
India’s daily Covid-19 vaccinations have slowed from their record high early this month while new infections have set a record in eight of the past nine days, government data show, underscoring a lack of doses in the country.
After giving and selling tens of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad, India has suddenly found itself short of shots. It has abruptly changed rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer.
Vaccinations peaked at 4.5 million doses on April 5 but have averaged about three million a day since then, according to the government’s Co-Win portal to coordinate immunisations.
The ferocious second surge had sent people rushing to vaccination centres, but many centres are now rationing supplies as output fails to meet demand.
India is vaccinating only people aged above 45 years, having started the campaign in the mid-January with health and then other front-line workers.
Many states have sought an expansion of the inoculation drive to include all adults as cases rise, but the government has said doses are “finite”, although enough to cover the identified groups.
The government said on Friday the country had a stock of about 30 million doses. Going by India’s immunisation trend in the past week, that will be enough to last 10 days.