India crosses 75 crore Covid vaccine doses: Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya

India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore, Mandaviya said.

PTI

September 13, 2021 / 18:36 IST

Representative picture

India has crossed the landmark of administering 75 crore Covid vaccine doses, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said Monday.

He said the country's vaccination drive continues to create new dimensions under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and with his mantra of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Prayas (together with everybody, with everybody's efforts".

'Congratulations India! In the 75th year of independence, the country has crossed the figure of 75 crore vaccinations," the health minister tweeted with hashtags #SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine and #AazadiKaAmritMahotsav.
So far, all adult people in six states and union territories -- Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Ladakh and Lakshadweep -- have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore, Mandaviya said.

The country took 24 days to reach 40 crore from 30 crore doses and then 20 more days to cross the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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