Covid-19: WHO hails India for reaching 75 crore vaccine milestone

Covid Vaccination Drive started in January 2020

India recently received accolades for reaching the 75 crore Covid=19 vaccination mark from the World Health organization. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director (South-East Asia), WHO, congratulated India for scaling up the Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Dr Singh also mentioned that India reached the 750 million vaccine dose milestone in just 13 days after having taken 86 days to administer 100 million doses. The Health Minister also congratulated India for crossing 75 crore vaccine mark in its 75th year of independence.

On August 6, India reached the 50-crore vaccination mark and on September 7, administered 70 crore vaccine doses. The health minister mentioned India reached 19 crore vaccination mark in nearly three months, another one and a half month to vaccinate 20 crores more people and another 30 days to complete 10 crore more vaccinations. The union Health Ministry data further states that 60 per cent of its adult population has received at least one jab while 19 per cent are completely vaccinated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated after the triple feat, after India created a record by administering 1.25 crore vaccines aa day, that he said is more than the entire population of many countries.

Though the supply of vaccine has improved, vaccine hesitancy and growing complacency over second dose is making it for India to achieve December target of vaccinating above 18 years. New infections have started declining. India recorded less than 30,000 new Covd-19 cases for the third day in a row. The daily Covid-19 positivity rate in India was recorded at 1.78% on Tuesday.

Moreover, according to experts, India needs to vaccinate at least 60% of its population if it wants to escape the Covid-19 third wave. Early estimates say, India requires 12 million doses per day to achieve the target.
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