COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: Over 52.23 lakh doses administered in India on August 21

On the 218th day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, 33.79 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 18.43 lakh people were given their second dose.(Representative image: Reuters)

More than 52.23 lakh vaccine doses were administered in India on August 21, the Union Health Ministry's latest provisional report suggested. With that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 58.14 crore.

On the 218th day of the vaccination drive on August 21, 33.79 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 18.43 lakh people were given their second dose.

The country took 85 days to touch the figure of 10 crore. It then took 45 days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore. India took another 24 days to reach 40 crore and 20 more days to cross 50 crore vaccinations, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said.

The government has revised the gap between the two doses for the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), to 12-16 weeks. However, the interval for the second dose of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin remains unchanged, i.e. four weeks.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide vaccination drive on January 16, with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs. The country began the second phase of the vaccination drive from March 1, in which, everyone above 60 years of age and those over 45 years with comorbidities could start getting the vaccine.

From April 1, vaccination was opened for everyone aged 45 and above with or without comorbidities.

India rolled out the third phase of its COVID-19 vaccination drive for those in the 18-44 age group on May 1.

The central government has 'liberalised' the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals, and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers. However, later it announced to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to everyone above the age of 18 years from June 21. The new COVID-19 vaccination policy is a significant shift from the government's 'liberalised and accelerated' policy, announced earlier.

Registration on CoWIN platform for the third phase began on April 28 and is mandatory for the 18-44 age group.

Here are key developments related to the COVID-19 vaccination process:

- The Tamil Nadu government would offer round-the-clock vaccination services at government colleges and hospitals from next week for the benefit of those unable to take the COVID-19 shots at their convenience. Speaking after launching one such facility at the Directorate of Public health and Preventive Medicine in Chennai on August 21, medical and family welfare minister Ma Subramanian said vaccines would be provided round the clock at this centre and that those wishing to receive the jabs should bring proof of identity.

- A total of 10,885 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to the inmates of three jails in Delhi so far, the Delhi Prisons Department said on the day.

- The ZyCov-D vaccine against COVID-19, which was granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) by the drug regulator, will hit the market soon as the drug firm has started its production, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on the last day of his "Jan Ashirwa Yatra" in Gujarat on the day.

- The Assam government has set a target to vaccinate the entire population of Kamrup Metropolitan district, under which the state's largest city Guwahati falls, by end of this month, Health and Family Welfare Minister Keshab Mahanta said on the day. The vaccination drive on a mission mode will be conducted at the polling booth level of the district, with field teams already starting work on collection of data on non-vaccinated people, he said.

- The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be holding COVID-19 inoculation drive at the city's health clinics all seven days a week, starting August 23, chairman of the civic body's board of administrators, Firhad Hakim, said, while also observing that the rush for the first jab is "far more" than that of the second. Hakim, who is also the state's transport minister, further said that the civic body has the infrastructure to vaccinate as many as one lakh people in a day.

Here's the vaccination count for some states:

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