As the weekly coronavirus vaccination rate dropped over the last few weeks, the stock of unused doses increased by more than four times, official data shows. On September 12, the stock of unused doses with the states was 5.16 crore that increased to 22.7 crore on Sunday. Further, the weekly vaccination done during the week ending September 12 was 5.35 crore. The same for the week ending November 21 dropped to 4.49 crore.
Official Union Health Ministry data analysed by CNN-News18 shows that India administered just 3.79 crore doses in the week ending November 14 and the week before that reported just 2.07 crore vaccinations.
While in September, India was vaccinating with more than five crore doses per week; this dropped to less than 4.5 crore doses in a week in October, data shows. The analysis also shows that as the pace of vaccination dropped, the stock of unused doses with the states and UTs increased.
Festive season was among the reasons for drop in vaccination rate over the last few weeks. So far, the Union government has supplied nearly 131 crore vaccine doses to states/UTs. More than 22.70 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states/UTs to be administered, the Union Health Ministry data up to Sunday shows.
On November 1, states and UTs had more than 13 crore balance and unutilised vaccine doses. On October 1, this stock was just five crore doses, the ministry data says.
Interestingly, while the overall pace of vaccination has dropped, the second dose administration has increased when compared to the first dose. Till September 1, India administered 66.17 crore doses of coronavirus vaccination. This included 50.87 crore first doses and 15.29 crore second doses. By November 1, the overall doses administered reached 106.79 crore, including 73.43 crore first doses and 33.36 crore second doses.
As of Sunday evening, India administered 116.86 crore doses of the vaccine, including 76.72 crore first doses. The number of fully vaccinated population has reached 40.13 crore. So far, India has administered the first dose to nearly 82 per cent of the eligible population while about 43 percent of the 18+ population in India has been fully vaccinated.
India started its vaccination drive against coronavirus on January 16. From May 1, it was opened up for all above 18 years across the country.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment