NEW DELHI:
India has administered more COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last two weeks than the number of people who signed up for shots during the period, government data showed on Tuesday, signalling improving supplies after widespread shortages.
Indians struggled to book scarce inoculation slots after Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened up vaccinations to all of the country's 930-940 million adults last month without a corresponding rise in output. Many immunisation centres ran out of vaccine shots and closed temporarily.
But rising production at the Serum Institute of India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has boosted availability of COVID-19 shots in the country this month. The company is on course to raise monthly output of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 100 million doses or more from July, from about 90 million this month and about 65 million in May.
That has helped India administer 61 million doses in the last two weeks starting June 12, compared with 58 million registrations for vaccination on the government's Co-Win vaccination website. It was the first time vaccinations exceeded registrations since the immunisation drive was expanded from May 1.
India has administered 323.9 million doses, the most in the world after China and the United States. Vaccination relative to people, however, is much lower in India than many countries.
Nearly half or 49% of the 60 and above population has been vaccinated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine. The percentage is 42% for those between 45 to 59 and 15% for those between 18-44 years. Total vaccine doses administered so far crossed the 33 crore mark on Tuesday.
The vaccine coverage estimation by age groups is based on Census projections of mid-year population for 2020-21. The total estimated population of 18 and above is 94.4 crore. Of this, those in the 18-44 years age bracket account for 59.7 crore individuals, 20.9 crore are in the 45-59 years age group and 13.8 crore are 60+.
During a press briefing, joint secretary secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said the pace of vaccination has been gaining momentum. He shared the average daily doses delivered from June 21 to 28 is 57.6 lakh.A break-up of the total doses shows that out of the over 33 crore doses administered, 27.2 crore accounted for the first dose and 5.84 crore the second.
So far, more than 346 million people have registered for shots in India, which wants to cover all its adults this year. Currently, cities are vaccinating much faster than the countryside.
India stepped up inoculations from last week when Modi's federal government took back the responsibility of supplying doses to individual states free of cost. A previous policy of letting states buy a portion of their requirements from companies had slowed down the immunisation process.