India’s Covid vaccination drive completes 1 year, over 156.76 cr doses administered so far

The countrywide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Sunday completed one year, during which over 156.76 crore of vaccine doses were administered.

According to health ministry officials, over 92 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose while over 68 per cent have been fully vaccinated. The Centre will issue a postal stamp on Sunday afternoon to mark the completion of one year of the inoculation drive.

The drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2.

The next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. Vaccination of all people aged over 45 from April 1. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the inoculation drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.

India started administering the precaution dose of Covid vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers, which include polling personnel deployed in the five poll-bound states, and comorbid people aged 60 and above from January 10 in a bid to stymie the coronavirus spread driven by its Omicron variant.

The health ministry has claimed that India’s vaccination programme has been one of the most successful and largest inoculation programmes when compared to many developed western nations with a significantly low population base to vaccinate.

In the vaccination drive, the country has achieved several milestones, which have no precedent in the world, including administering over 100 crore doses in less than nine months, administering 2.51 crore doses in a single day and several times administering one crore doses in a day, it said.

Covid vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore mark on October 21 last year. The cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 150-crore mark on January 7.

With the administration of more than 66 lakh vaccine doses in a day, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 156.76 crore, according to provisional reports till 7 am on Sunday.

More than 43.19 lakh precaution doses of the vaccine have been administered. Also, 3,38,50,912 first doses have been given to beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group.