Covid vaccine: India gave more jabs than G7 nations combined in August
The Indian government aims to vaccinate all eligible citizens by the end of 2021. India, so far, has provided more than 686 million doses of the vaccine. More than half of India's eligible population, about 473 million people, have received a single dose of the vaccine. However, only 17% of eligible adults were fully vaccinated in early January. India has reported more than 33 million cases, second only to the United States, it has also recorded just 440,000 deaths, which is third behind the US and Brazil. Since January India has administered 168 million doses, 526 million of whom have received the first dose, and another 160 million have received the second dose.
How is the launch in India progressing?
India's daily case count has been declining, India has reported less than 40,000 new daily cases in the past month and most of them are from the southern state of Kerala. Government data show 6% fewer women are vaccinated. This is true in rural India where women have limited access to the internet and are afraid to take vaccines. Although higher doses are administered daily in rural areas, the share of the population vaccinated in urban areas is still larger. Most countries, particularly in developing countries, have struggled to access vaccines, a challenge India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, did not expect.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government didn't order from vaccine makers early enough - and a devastating second wave in April prompted them to extend the push too quickly to the entire adult population, which is nearly one billion. According to official data, India delivered an average of six million punctures daily in August, compared to 4.3 million daily punctures in July.
Experts say India needs to deliver more than 10 million doses a day consistently to fully inoculate all eligible adults by the end of this year.
India's daily case count has been declining - it has reported fewer than 40,000 new daily cases in the past month and most of them are from the southern state of Kerala.
In June, the government told the Supreme Court that 1.35 billion doses would be available between August and December. It takes about 1.8 billion doses to vaccinate all eligible adults in India.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56345591