COVID-19: How India fell short of its immunisation goal
Image credit: Vox
By the end of 2021, India would have failed to achieve its objective of administering two immunizations to its whole adult population of 940 million people.
By the end of December, 64% of India’s adult population had been fully vaccinated, with around 90% having taken the first dosage.
According to experts, achieving the goal of 100% immunisation coverage will take a long time.
Since mid-October, there have been more second doses administered than first doses.
According to some analysts, if the September pace had continued, India would have been closer to the target, but demand would have finally plummeted.
In response to Omicron worries, Mr Modi has requested states to increase vaccinations in low-uptake districts.
The health ministry has not highlighted the 100 per cent aim in any of its press appearances in recent months.
We contacted the ministry about the target being missed but received no response.
Covishield and Covaxin, two locally made vaccinations, as well as the Russian vaccine Sputnik, are currently being administered in India.
Serum Institute of India (SII), India’s largest vaccine manufacturer, was producing 250 million doses of Covishield a month until announcing production restrictions in December due to a lack of orders.
Between 125 and 150 million doses are produced each month.
Covaxin is manufactured by Bharat Biotech, which produces 50 to 60 million doses every month.
Mansukh Mandaviya, India’s health minister, recently stated in parliament that states have a stock of 170 million vaccines as of December 20.
SII manufactures Novavax, which was developed in the United States and renamed Covavax in India, and has been granted an emergency use listing by the WHO. India has also given it their blessing.
Bharat Biotech has applied for permission to conduct clinical trials of its intranasal vaccine as a booster dose.
In India, Corbevax, a product of Biological-E, has also been approved.
SII provided roughly 40 million doses of the 700 million vaccines that Covax had delivered to 144 countries as of December 14th.
According to Coax, almost 28 million such doses were distributed between January and April 2021.
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