India’s vaccine plans. India has become the fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country in the world with a daily average of 30,93,861 vaccine doses, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. With this, India has surpassed the US which is vaccinating 30.93 lakh people per day on an average.
According to the ministry, the cumulative number of coronavirus vaccine doses administered in India so far has crossed 8.70 crore on Day 81 of the vaccination drive that was launched on January 16, nearly a month after it was started in the US. Till April 6, India had administered 33,37,601 vaccine doses to the beneficiaries.
A total of 8,70,77,474 vaccine doses have been administered so far in India through 13,32,130 sessions. These include 89,63,724 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 53,94,913 HCWs who have taken the second dose. As many 97,36,629 frontline workers have taken the first dose, while 43,12,826 of them have been administered the second shot.
On the flip side, new Covid cases continue to rise in India with the country recording over 1.15 lakh fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the biggest-ever single-day surge since the onset of the pandemic early last year, taking its overall tally to 12,801,785. The number of active cases inb the country presently stands at 843,473.
As per reports, India is the fourth most affected country in the world in terms of active cases.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to make vaccination against Covid-19 a grand success story. For this, the party is going to launch a mass campaign like last year when it provided relief packets to millions of distressed people when a nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the pandemic. The party is targeting 50 lakh vaccinations per day, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President J.P. Nadda asked party leaders to make it a mass movement.
Party’s Rajya Sabha member Anil Jain has set up a team to make the campaign a grand success. Jain, a doctor himself, is currently overseeing the vaccination drive in 31 states and Union Territories including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. This mass vaccination campaign will be launched after the present election process in five states gets over.
Jain said that the party is helping general public get the vaccine by setting up help desks at 57,000 locations including 20,000 government vaccine centres.
“People are being informed about the Covid-19 vaccines at help desks set up at five to six places in each division. In each state, several teams of conveners, co-conveners have been constituted from district and block level to the state level to oversee the drive.”
Jain hopes that everyone will get the first dose of the vaccine at least by the next three months i.e. July. He said currently people above 45 years of age are getting inoculated. Later, all above 18 years of age with comorbidities will get the vaccine. Then, people above the age of 35 are likely to be vaccinated. In the next phase, all types of people over the age of 18 will be given a chance to get vaccinated. Thus, by July, everyone over the age of 18 is expected to get a jab.
Jain gets the daily report on the progress of vaccination in all states — from state conveners, MPs, MLAs, and volunteers. He holds meetings at regular intervals via video conferencing. So far he has held video meets with teams from 22 states.
The BJP will also carry out vaccination campaigns in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry when the election process is over. The BJP has directed all its MPs and MLAs to urge and motivate the public to come to the vaccination centres. He has also asked the cadres to help remove the fear about the vaccines from the minds of the people.