400M Indian adults got their first dose of COVID vaccine

At least more than half of the eligible Indian adults worth 473 million have received their first job. India is now ramping up its vaccination drive to prepare for the third wave of the infection. India has completed more than 610 million doses with its three approved vaccines.

The government is planning to vaccinate all the Indians by the end of 2021. It took 19 days for India to administer its last doses of 100M. However, only 15% of Indian adults have been vaccinated completely since the inception of this drive. The regional disparities and the lag in the smaller and richer states are one of the main reasons behind this.

The country has reported more than 32 million cases which makes it second after. The country has recorded 400000 deaths that took place due to Covid. India has administered more than 610 million doses since 16 January.

At least 473 million people have received the first jab. Another 138 million have received both the jabs. India is now giving 5.3 million vaccines daily.

“This daily average is far from what is required to finish the drive of this year. I don’t see the target of vaccinating all adults by this year-end materializing,” Dr. John said.

Experts say that the country needs to administer more than 10 million doses per day to meet its goal to vaccinate all Indian adults by the end of the year. Much will depend on the hesitancy in the level of vaccine and availability of doses.

The daily case count in this country is now dropping. It is now reporting less than 40000 new cases daily. But experts say that the third wave is more likely to hit the country as the new variant threat surges. There is also a gender gap in the vaccination drive.

Though there is a higher number of doses that are getting daily administration in rural areas, the vaccination in urban areas is still greater.

PM Narendra Modi did not place orders from the vaccine makers earlier. Hence it resulted in a devastating second wave, which pushed the country to take the drive seriously. India is using three vaccines – The Oxford – AstraZeneca jab, Covexin, Covishield, and Sputnik V.

People can experience side effects from the jabs. India has reported more than 23000 adverse events after the vaccination. Most of them include anxiety, giddiness, vertigo, dizziness, pain, and fever.

Credits: BBC