3 of 4 adults are now double-jabbed, 95% have got the first dose
A total 165.90 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered until Sunday. An estimated 95% of the eligible adult population have received the first dose, and 75% have received both doses, the data show.
India started vaccinating on January 17 last year, beginning with healthcare workers and frontline workers, and the older population of the country.
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A little over a year after India began its inoculation drive, three out of four eligible adults are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, health ministry data show.
A total 165.90 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered until Sunday. An estimated 95% of the eligible adult population have received the first dose, and 75% have received both doses, the data show.
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India started vaccinating on January 17 last year, beginning with healthcare workers and frontline workers, and the older population of the country. Vaccination was subsequently expanded to cover everyone aged 18 years and older. Adolescents in the 15-18 age group were made eligible on January 3 this year.
A 75 per cent second-dose coverage has significant public health implications. The Health Ministry said that while over 500 districts continue to report a case positivity rate of more than 5 per cent due to the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant, the broad vaccination coverage has ensured that hospitalisations and deaths have been fewer.
Four large states — Gujarat (96%), Madhya Pradesh (93%), Karnataka (91%), and Rajasthan (77%) — have a second-dose coverage well above the national average, official data show. Five other large states are, however, reporting second-dose coverage below the national average: Bihar and Andhra Pradesh (65% each), Uttar Pradesh (67%), Maharashtra (68%), and Tamil Nadu (69%).
Second-dose coverage increased significantly in the last week of November last year, after South Africa warned the WHO about the emergence of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
In the week ended November 19, India for the first time administered over 3 crore second doses in a week. The seven-day average for the next six weeks has been 3.47 crore doses.
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The spike in second-dose vaccinations — due mainly to the door-to-door drive to track down individuals whose second shot was overdue — has played a significant role in reducing mortality in the ongoing surge.
Data from India and around the world show that deaths and severe disease triggered by Omicron have been significantly higher in unvaccinated and part-vaccinated populations.
Five mid-sized states are currently reporting second-dose vaccination coverage above the national average: Telangana (97%), Haryana (83%), Kerala and Assam (78%), and Odisha (76%). Four Northeastern states — Nagaland (37%), Manipur (53%), Meghalaya (45%), and Arunachal Pradesh (69%) — are reporting low second-dose coverage.
Since January 1, the rate of second-dose vaccination has seen a slight fall, official data show. In the first four weeks of this year, the seven-day second-dose coverage has averaged 2.34 crore shots.
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Reasons for this include the fact that several large states are now close to saturation first-dose coverage, and a significant population will be eligible for the second dose only months later, given the long interval between doses of Covishield.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
