India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination drive surpassed the 200-crore milestone on Sunday and as per provisional reports till 1 p.m., a total of 2,00,00,15,631 doses have been administered across the country. This was achieved through 2,63,26,111 sessions, said the Health Ministry.
It took the country almost nine months to reach the 100-crore mark and another nine months to touch the 200-crore vaccination mark since the start of the drive on January 16, 2021, with the highest single-day vaccination record of 2.5 crore doses achieved on September 17, 2021.
Calling India’s vaccination drive “unparalleled in scale and speed,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his tweet, congratulated the countrymen on bringing about this significant feat.
The nationwide vaccination programme was launched on January 16, 2021. The Ministry in its release noted that several systematic interventions were carried out in ensuring capacity building for carrying out this nationwide exercise.
“Existing supply chain for storage and transport of COVID1-9 vaccines were leveraged and strengthened and effective monitoring of vaccine distribution and assured availability and efficient utilisation of vaccines and syringes were ensured at all times,’’ said the release.
It added that India’s free and voluntary nationwide vaccination exercise was also being carried out in a citizen-friendly approach through initiatives such as ‘Har Ghar Dastak’, workplace COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs), school-based vaccination, vaccination of persons with no identity documents, near-to-home CVCs and mobile vaccination teams.
The Ministry said that with 71% of CVCs located in rural areas and over 51% of vaccine doses administered to women, the programme also ensured geographical and gender equity.
On July 15, the Central government launched a 75-day ‘COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’ to provide free precaution doses to all eligible adult populations at government CVCs. This special drive, part of the celebration for ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, is being implemented in a ‘mission mode’ to increase uptake of precaution dose of vaccine.
