As Covid-19 vaccination pace drops, India likely to miss July target

The new phase of universal free vaccination that started on June 21 started with a bang

India’s current pace of vaccination can make it miss its target of 13.5 crore doses by July end. Till Sunday, total Covid-19 vaccines administered was 9.94 crore. An average of 38.26 lakh doses in a day, till Sunday. If the current pace is consistent,  only 12.4. crore doses will be administered by the end of July.

If the national vaccination drive wants to meet its target, daily doses administered need to be at least 60 lakh, a number attained only twice this month.

The new phase of universal free vaccination that started on June 21 started with a bang recording 87 lakh vaccine doses in a day but soon lost its strength. According to official data, the weekly doses administered came down from 4.5 crore as of June 26 to 2.8 crore in the week ending July 25.

On Monday, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed 43.52 crore vaccine doses were administered across the country, and in the last 24 hours 18,99,874 doses were administered. Data showed over 34 crore people have received at least one dose and 9.3 crore are completely vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the centre on Sunday, told the Lok Sabha that no fixed timeline can be given for the completing of Covid vaccination considering the dynamic and evolving nature of the pandemic but it is expected that all beneficiaries aged 18 years and above will receive vaccination but the end of the year. The Centre also asserted that the pace of vaccination is among the fastest in the world.

According to government data, India has seen less than 50,000 daily cases for the last 29 days. The daily positivity rate has come down to 3.14 per cent and has remained consistently below 5 per cent in the last 49 days, as on Monday.