Indians are praying hard that a third Covid wave doesn't run rampage anytime soon.
India is praying hard that a third wave of Covid doesn't run rampage through the country. Administrators, health professionals, and vaccine makers are working hard to prevent such an eventuality. However, the rate at which the country is vaccinating itself may fall considerably short of the requirement to avoid another upsurge of infections.
It has been estimated that to prevent a third Covid wave India must inoculate at least 60 per cent of its over 1.3 billion population with both doses of a vaccine by December this year.
For this, it must administer the injections to 8.6 million people every single day.
Yet, for a little more than a week now, the country has been vaccinating at a rate of about 4 million people a day, a shortfall of 4.6 million. On Sunday, just 1.5 million people received their shots, which is less than the target by 7.1 million.
It must be noted that with every day's shortfall, the required number of vaccinations per day, currently at 8.6 million, rises.
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The country yesterday reported 39,796 fresh Covid cases, the lowest daily rise in nearly three months. But that cannot be a matter of relief yet, given the nature of the disease and its ability to spread.
Over 35 crore doses have been adminstered so far even as the government tries to hasten the process. It aims to vaccinate all adults by the end of this year. So far, four vaccines -- Covishield, Covaxin, Russia's Sputnik V, and Moderna -- have been cleared for use in the country.
