Record 80 lakh jabs—twice New Zealand’s population—given on day one of revised vaccination policy, shows govt data

Source: AP

The first day of the government's new COVID-19 vaccination policy turned out to be a huge success, as more than 80 lakh jabs were administered across the country on June 21, almost double the country’s earlier highest mark of 43 lakh daily vaccinations in early April.

"In a landmark achievement, nearly 81 lakh (80,95,314) doses have been administered on the first day," the Union health ministry said, adding that the Centre is committed to further accelerate the pace and expand the scope of the nationwide immunisation drive in the days to come.

Government officials have said this is the highest single-day vaccination number in the world, and India has nearly vaccinated the population of Israel or twice the population of New Zealand in a single day. The centralised free vaccination drive began today with the Centre giving free vaccines to the states for all age groups.

“The record numbers today show what is achievable when vaccine administration is done in an efficient manner from the Centre. These numbers have been driven by the centralised model of vaccination along with ground-level efforts by state governments. There is adequate supply going ahead and the onus is now on the state governments to mobilise their resources and do the vaccination exercise at a fast pace. Some states have not been able to step up their game yet,” a top central government official said.

Officials pointed out that NDA-ruled states performed outstandingly in ramping up vaccination numbers and accounted for around 70 percent of all vaccinations done today. These numbers give hope to the country’s goal of vaccinating every adult by December this year, officials further said.

Over 55 lakh jabs today were given to the 18-44 age category, indicating that the young queued up for jabs in big numbers as the supplies for them have improved.

Among states, the maximum single-day vaccination numbers were recorded by Madhya Pradesh, where 15,42,632 beneficiaries were inoculated. Over 10 lakh vaccine doses were administered in Karnataka, above 6.7 lakh in Uttar Pradesh and more than 5 lakh in Gujarat.

Five BJP-ruled states, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana, contributed to over 50 percent of total jabs given today, after announcing a special drive.

All these states had set up more vaccination centres and done preparations in their districts to achieve the high numbers. Nearly 68,000 vaccination centres were operational across the country, including over 8,000 in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and nearly 8,500 in Uttar Pradesh. Haryana, which had fixed a target of 2.5 lakh jabs, achieved over 4.7 lakh jabs while Gujarat has clocked nearly 5 lakh jabs.

Karnataka was able to vaccinate over 10 lakh people while Uttar Pradesh achieved 6.6 lakh jabs, up from its initial target of 6 lakh jabs.

Read: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: 30.3 lakh doses administered in India on June 20

Government officials said a stark contrast was visible with the rather lacklustre performance of Opposition-ruled states like Punjab, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Delhi which were not able to cross even 1 lakh vaccinations. Maharashtra vaccinated around 3.6 lakh people, which central officials said was below par given its population and despite the availability of more than 33 lakh vaccines till the end of this month with the state.

“Punjab, Chattisgarh and Delhi have indicated availability of around 8 lakh vaccines till the end of this month. Chattisgarh has indicated availability of around 3.5 lakh vaccines,” a central government official said.

Nearly 80 lakh vaccinations in a day is a big increase from the levels in May when daily jabs had plunged to as low as 15 lakh on some days. The Centre, upon the insistence of the Congress and some chief ministers of Opposition-ruled states, had opened up vaccinations for the 18-44 age group from May 1 and asked states to procure vaccines for them at their own cost while the Centre continued to provide states free vaccines for 45+ age group. This led to the supplies drying up.

The Centre, citing how the vaccine exercise was better administered under its control earlier, reversed the policy earlier this month with PM Narendra Modi announcing that the Centre will now also foot the cost of the 18-44 age group vaccination and provide free vaccines for all to the states.

News18 has earlier reported that the Centre has been aiming for daily vaccinations in the country to touch 10 million from August 1 and a consistent level of 50 lakh-plus vaccinations is expected by end-June till early July. There is expected to be a gradual increase in daily vaccinations thereon.