New Delhi: India has delivered more than 75 crores of Covid vaccine doses since the launch of the nationwide drive in January this year, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said today. At this rate, up to 43 per cent of the country’s population will be covered by December.
Referring to the “milestone” of 75 crore doses, Minister Mandaviya today sought to link it to India’s celebration of 75 years of its Independence — Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (“The great immortal celebration of freedom”).
“Congratulations India! With PM Narendra Modi’s ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ mantra, the world’s biggest vaccination campaign has been relentlessly creating new dimensions. #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav, in the 75th year of independence, the country has crossed 75 crore doses of vaccination,” Mr Mandaviya tweeted in Hindi.
To stop a third wave of the pandemic, experts have said India needs to cover at least 60 per cent of the population with both doses of the vaccine by the year end. This requires a vaccination rate of 12 million doses per day. The government had, however, announced a more ambitious target of 200 crore doses by December.
The rate of inoculation managed by India over the past seven days was 7.7 million a day, leaving a shortfall of 4.3 million doses, according to data released by the Union government. India the past 24 hours alone, India delivered 5.3 million doses, with a shortfall of 6.7 million.
