Half of India’s adults have now got at least one dose of Covid vaccine

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Half of the country’s adult population eligible for Covid vaccines has received at least one dose, which includes 99% coverage among healthcare workers and 100% front-line workers for the first dose.

A little more than 60% of the over-60 population has also been covered by at least a first dose of the vaccine.

The average daily vaccinations during August so far also increased to 52.16 lakh doses from 43.41 lakh and 39.38 lakh in July and June respectively. The government said supply situation of vaccines appears satisfactory as in the past few weeks there have been no reports from any state on vaccine shortages.

“In last three weeks, balanced unutilised vaccine doses count in the country has never gone below 2.5 crore,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, underlining that the Centre takes stock of the supply and availability situation from states and UTs every morning.

Bhushan also highlighted that the Centre has urged states to ramp up vaccination, particularly coverage of second dose of the jabs, with better availability of vaccines. He said the real concern remains the high incidence of the disease in states like Kerala which give rise to fears that a ready host of vulnerable persons may see the emergence of new mutant strain.

While only 14.6% of the 94 crore adult population is fully vaccinated so far, 83% of healthcare workers and 79% of front-line workers eligible for the second shot have been covered with both the doses, official data show.

Vaccine supplies are also likely to improve further from October as Zydus Cadila has indicated to the government that its DNA-based anti-Covid jab, ZyCoV-D, will be available from the first week of October. The government is still negotiating with the company on terms and price of procurement, Bhushan said.

While ZyCoV-D has been given emergency use authorisation for use in all above 12 years, the final decision regarding starting vaccination of children of 12-18 years will be based on National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation’s recommendations, which are yet to be submitted to the health ministry. (Times of India)