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“India administers 80 crore vaccine doses,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Saturday, a day after the country clocked its highest 24-hour vaccination tally of 2.5 crore jabs.
Breaking it down, he said, India took 85 days to get to 10 crore vaccinations, another 45 days to get from 10 to 20 crore, 29 days to touch 30 crore, 24 to get to 40 crore, 20 days to reach 50 crore, 19 to 60 crore, and 13 days to touch 70 crore. From 70 crore to 80 crore vaccinations, it took only 11 days, he tweeted.
The 80-crore vaccination milestone also got a mention from Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist with the World Health Organization.
Vax break-up
In fact, Saturday also saw a good run at vaccination centres, with close to 83 lakh doses being administered till 8.30 pm.
A lion’s share of the jabs were administered at the 62,249 government-run sites, while about 3,721 private sites also contributed to the day’s tally.
Maharashtra led with over 13 lakh shots and West Bengal did over 12 lakh. Madhya Pradesh administered over 6 lakh doses and Uttar Pradesh 5 lakh plus.
The development comes even as Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high-level meeting to review Covid-19 management and response strategies across the country.
Concerns remain
Pointing out that there was no room for complacency, he referred to the experience of other countries that had seen multiple peaks of Covid-19 and expressed concern over certain pockets in India reporting high test positivity. State Health administrators were urged to undertake granular analysis of their Covid trajectory, ramp up the health infrastructure, stock up on essential medicines and augment human resources at the earliest, to meet any potential surge in cases.
At the meeting, the Health Secretary pointed out that 70 districts in 15 States were a cause for concern as 34 of them had a positivity of over 10 per cent and in 36 districts, it was in the 5-10 per cent range.
With the festival season coming up, he directed the States to ensure precautions and effective enforcement to avoid mass gatherings and congested closed spaces.
Also, he said, funds had been released to all States and Union Territories under the Emergency COVID Response Package, and urged them to use it.
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