NEW DELHI: With more than 150 crore doses of Covid vaccines administered in less than a year, including two crore first doses to the 15-17 age group, India crossed another major landmark in its vaccination programme on Friday.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi lauded the feat as a “historic milestone”, calling it a “remarkable day” on the vaccination front. “Congratulations to our fellow citizens on crossing the 150-crore milestone.
Our vaccination drive has ensured that many lives are saved. At the same time, let us also keep following all Covid-19 protocols,” he said.
While more than 91% of the adult population has received at least one dose, over 66% of those above 18 years of age are now fully vaccinated. Besides, more than two crore adolescents have been covered with first dose of Covaxin, covering 27% of the estimated 7.4 crore youngsters in the age group.
“We have crossed an important milestone today. We had started the year vaccinating 15 to 18 years old children, and today in the first week of the first month we have achieved the historic feat of 150 crore – 1.5 billion – vaccine doses. And all these 150 crore doses were given in less than a year. Statistically this is a very tall feat. This may surprise the world but for 130 crore Indians this reflects their self-confidence, self-reliance and self-pride,” PM
Modi said.
A total of 150.6 crore doses were administered till 9pm, Friday. According to “Our World in Data” website, India accounts for the second highest number of doses administered in the world so far after China, which had given 288 crore doses till January 6. In terms of share of population, 62.5% have received at least one dose of vaccines. While this is lower than countries such as UAE (99%), Cuba (92.4%), Chile (90.3%), Brazil (77.8%), the US (74%) and Mexico (62.9%), India’s coverage includes mainly adults who are primarily at risk as compared to minors.
On Friday, nearly 89 lakh doses were given till 10 pm.
Health minister
Mansukh Mandaviya said the feat was possible because of the relentless hard work of healthcare workers. When everyone makes efforts together, any goal can be achieved, Mandaviya said in a tweet in Hindi.