Weekly vaccination numbers have improved in the last one week to nearly 1.47 crore jabs, the highest in any week of what was a lackluster May, and the country recorded over 30 lakh jabs for the first time on Friday after over a month. The revival this week has been driven by Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
While Uttar Pradesh was leading in the daily vaccination numbers for nearly two weeks this month, overtaking Maharashtra on that matrix, and scored over three lakh jabs on Friday for the first time, Andhra Pradesh came from behind to record the maximum 4.3 lakh jabs on Friday after 5.7 lakh jabs on Thursday. This was a quantum leap for the state which was vaccinating only about 3,000 people on May 23 due to a big shortage of vaccines.
Andhra Pradesh this week received stocks from the Centre and has started a special drive to vaccinate people above 45 years of age and in the last two days has vaccinated over 9 lakh people of this age group. Andhra Pradesh wants to first vaccinate all in 45+ age category.
“With better vaccine supplies expected in June, the daily vaccination numbers should be in the range of 25-30 lakh or even more in the days to come,” a senior central government official told News18.
The overall weekly numbers of May 22-28 show that the vaccinations in the 18-44 age group have now crossed 50% of all vaccinations and the demand for the second dose among 45+ is accounting for less than 10% of the total jabs.
Uttar Pradesh has meanwhile announced it will be significantly increasing its vaccination drive from June 1 by opening jabs for 18-44 age group across all districts of the state. Maharashtra still leads in the total vaccination numbers but its daily jab count has fallen behind Andhra Pradesh and UP.
