The call for ‘Tika Utsav’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t seem to have had much effect on the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country, with the total number of people getting vaccinated remaining lower than the previous high that the country had achieved.
In the four days of the ‘Tika Utsav’ from 11-14 April, the number of people vaccinated across India were:
- Day 1: 29,33,418
- Day 2: 40,04,521
- Day 3: 26,46,528
- Day 4: 33,13,848
However, none of these days surpassed the highest number of people vaccinated in the country on 5 April, when over 43 lakh doses were administered in 24 hours.
According to the Centre, 1,28,98,314 doses were administered in the four days of ‘Tika Utsav’.
Three states have administered more than 1 crore vaccinations – Maharashtra (1,11,19,018), Rajasthan (1,02,15,471) and Uttar Pradesh (1,00,17,650).
This comes amid several states reporting vaccine shortage in the past one week, with many asking the Centre to ramp up supply as they struggled to meet the demands amid an intense second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. India on Thursday recorded over 2 lakh new cases – the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.
Current Rate May Take 13 Months to Vaccinate 60% Population
According to an analysis by IndiaSpend, it could take over 13 months to vaccinate at least 60% of India’s population.
Moreover, according to government data, India on an average, vaccinated 3 lakh people per day in February, 16 lakh per day in March and 35 lakh per day in April.
India's current capacity for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines is 83-113 million doses per month.
According to IndiaSpend, at this rate, India would be able to vaccinate 40% of its population by December 2021 and 60% of the population by May 2022.
However, these figures are in terms of the currently available vaccines in India, i.e, Covaxin and Covidshield.
To ramp up supply, India on Tuesday approved fast-tracking of Emergency-Use Approvals (EUA) for foreign-produced COVID-19 vaccines that have been granted EUA in other countries.
While approving, the government mandated the requirement of post-approval ‘parallel bridging clinical trial’ rather than a ‘local clinical trial’. The Centre had thus far refused to approve any foreign vaccine without conducting bridging clinical trials.
(With inputs from IndiaSpend.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)