India Exceeds the US to become the Fastest Vaccinating Country against COVID-19 Pandemic

May, 2021 - By WMR

April 06, 2021 marked the day 81 of the Indian vaccination drive, and over 3.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered on this day.

The Union Health Ministry of India said on Tuesday, April 06 that India has overtaken the US and has become the fastest country in the world to administer COVID-19 vaccines with a daily average of 3 million doses. The Indian Union Health Ministry also included that the vaccination drive has so far administered over 870 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine since January.

In the wake of an alarming second wave of COVID-19 virus, India has accelerated its COVID-19 vaccination drive. From April 04 onwards, the daily cases of COVID-19 infection have crossed the 100,000 mark, first time since the outbreak of crisis. Since April 02, all the citizens aging above 45 years are eligible for inoculation along with some certain groups of healthcare workers and bank employees. Northern states have planned to initiate vaccination drives particularly for frontline workers and journalists. This vaccination drive is expected to be the largest in the world with a potential target of administering about 250 million individuals by July. But the pace of this vaccination drive has been steady so far due to the restraining factors such as poor awareness and misbeliefs related to the vaccine in rural regions.

The Secretary of the Indian Union Health Ministry, Rajesh Bhushan, said that “For those asking why we don’t run inoculation for everyone. There are two major objectives of vaccination drives, to prevent deaths and to protect the healthcare sector. The objective is not to deliver vaccines to those who demand it but to those who require it.”

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, India has reported over 12 million cases and another 165,000 deaths, which is the third highest cumulative number of COVID-19 infections globally.