Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday, 21 May, said that India will be in a position to vaccinate all of its adult population by end of 2021.
While addressing a COVID-19 review meet with the state health ministers, Dr Vardhan said that the country’s health facilities are being upgraded and emphasised the need to step up vaccination process and asked the states to dedicate 70 percent of vaccines provided by the central government for the second dose.
“Between August and December 2021, India will have procured 216 crore vaccine doses, while by July this year, 51 crore doses will be procured.”Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister
The health minister also cautioned the state ministers on the emerging trend of how the smaller states are showing an upward trend and there is a dire need to be extremely cautious.
According to The Economic Times, he asked the states to follow the basic principles of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour along with testing, tracking, tracing, treating and now vaccinating to fight against the pandemic. He also highlighted that daily recoveries have outnumbered the daily new COVID cases for the last eight days consistently.
He also said that the government is in the process of supporting manufacturers of vaccines to ramp up vaccine availability in the country. He stated that there will be an exponential rise in production of vaccines in the country in the coming months, the report said.
Underscoring the critical importance of the vaccination drive, the minister said that India has administered a total of 19,18,89,503 vaccine doses to its citizens so far.
During the meeting, Dr Harsh Vardhan also asked all the states and union territories to notify black fungus, also known as mucormycosis, as an epidemic and to ensure that all the cases of the disease are duly reported.
He also added that all the necessary information and guidelines regarding diabetes control and restricted use of steroids have been provided to the states.
The minister was interacting with the health ministers of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, and the Lieutenant Governors/Administrators of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Ladakh and Lakshadweep, in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health, Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
(With inputs from Economic Times)
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