PremiumNew Delhi: India administered over 88.13 lakh doses of covid-19 vaccines in the last 24 hours, the highest ever vaccination achieved in a single day since the start of the nationwide covid-19 vaccination drive.
With this, the cumulative covid-19 vaccination coverage has increased to 55.47 crores. “This translates to 46% of all adult Indians receiving the first dose. 13% of all adult Indians have received both doses of vaccine and are protected against covid-19," the union health ministry said in a statement.
Uttar Pradesh administered more than six crore doses, becoming the only state to cross this milestone. So far, over 5,07,22,629 people have received their first doses while over 94,27,421 are fully vaccinated in the state. It administered over 23.67 lakh covid-19 doses in a single day, the second-highest, so far. On August 3, a record high of 29.52 lakh doses was administered.
Uttar Pradesh became the first state where more than five crore people have taken at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine, the UP government said. On the contrary, Maharashtra lags behind with 5.01 crore doses delivered, so far. The vaccination numbers in Rajasthan stand at 3.82 crore, West Bengal has vaccinated around 3.46 crore people, in Tamil Nadu only 2.71 crore vaccine doses have been given and Kerala has vaccinated only 2.46 crore of its population.
“The state-wide launch of the cluster model for the covid-19 vaccination drive has made the task easy, equitable and seamless by eliminating crucial roadblocks like transport and the digital divide," the state government said in a statement.
“In the last two months, India has crossed the 8.7 million mark for single day vaccinations twice before but has not been able to continue the momentum. This time around as well there is no indication that the numbers will be as high in the coming days," said Himanshu Sikka, lead—health, nutrition and, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at IPE Global, an international development consultancy.
“Given we have only provided one dose to only 1/3rd of India’s population, keeps us highly vulnerable to subsequent waves and also provides a greater opportunity to the virus to mutate. India to come of this crisis needs to inoculate at least 10 million people daily for the next 4-5 months, for us to celebrate the achievements," he said.
While India achieved the highest number of single-day vaccinations, it reported its lowest daily new cases (25,166) in 154 days in the last 24 hours. While 423 deaths were reported, the recovery rate stands at 97.51%, which is the highest since March 2020. India’s active caseload at 3,69,846 is the lowest in 146 days. Active cases now constitute only 1.15% of the country's total positive cases, the union health ministry data shows.
“Weekly positivity rate at 1.98% remains less than 3% for last 53 days now. The daily positivity rate also stands at 1.61%. Daily positivity rate has remained below 3% for last 22 days and below 5% for 71 consecutive days now," the union health ministry said.
