India celebrates 1 billion vaccinations milestone
INDIA: Nine months into the inoculation drive, India celebrated the milestone of administering one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses on Thursday, with the government promoting the achievement in song and video even as a recent drop in inoculations worries healthcare providers.
Since January, India’s immunisation campaign has covered three-quarters of its 944 million adults with at least one dose but only 31 per cent with two. The government wants all adults to get vaccinated this year.
“India scripts history,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter. “We are witnessing the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and collective spirit of (1.3 billion) Indians.”
Modi marked the occasion with a visit to a Government hospital in New Delhi. The health ministry announced musical and other programmes across the country, and special illuminations of national monuments including a colonial-era jail.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that nearly 73 percent of the eligible population has received a single dose of vaccine and around 31 percent both doses. Mandaviya has said that the country will produce over 28 crore doses in October as it continues to ramp up its supply.
Nearly 90 per cent of the vaccines administered in India have come from the Serum Institute of India (SII), which produces a licensed version of the AstraZeneca drug. SII has more than tripled its capacity since April and can now produce 220 million vaccine doses a month.
SII has also slowly resumed exports for the first time since April, when the Government stopped all overseas sales to meet domestic demand as infections rose dramatically. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which relies heavily on India for supplies to its global vaccine-sharing platform Covax, congratulated the country for reaching the landmark.
“India’s progress must be viewed in the context of the country’s commendable commitment and efforts to ensure that these life-saving vaccines are accessible globally,” said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia.
India has so far reported 34.1 million COVID-19 cases and more than 452,000 deaths, most during a second wave of infections of the Delta variant that surged through the country between April and May. – NDTV