Driven by rural India boost, daily vaccination gathers pace in Aug

NEW DELHI: Daily vaccinations have picked up in August with an average of 51.45 lakh doses per day in the week July 31-Aug 6, up over 27% from 40.31 lakh doses a day a fortnight ago (July 17-23) with a high uptake in rural areas.
Vaccination has averaged at around 48.25 lakh doses in the previous week of July 24-30. The rise in daily vaccinations is mainly driven by higher vaccination in rural areas that accounts for more than 60% of daily inoculations. During July 31-August 6, nearly 65% of 3.6 crore vaccine doses were administered to recipients at rural centres.
"While there were initial apprehensions in rural areas, the uptake in these areas is commendable," an official said. Five states of MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have administered over one crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the age group of 18-44 years.
Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have vaccinated more than 10 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-44 group for the first dose of vaccine.
Despite a slowdown in Covaxin supplies from the new Bengaluru facility of Bharat Biotech, overall supply of vaccines have improved over last few months. The government has given a visibility of 15 crore doses to be supplied during August, whereas it is likely to supply at least 20 crore doses in September.
The government has already placed an order for 66 crore doses of Covid vaccines to be made available between August and December. This includes 37.5 crore doses of Covishield and 28.5 crore doses of Covaxin. Besides, the Centre has also made an advance arrangement with Biological E to reserve 30 crore doses of its Corbevax vaccine. The government has supplied over 52.37 crore vaccine doses so far and a further 8,99,260 doses are in the pipeline.