Gujarat crossed an important landmark of 4 crore total vaccine doses administered as on August 15, 2021.
The State has covered about 20 per cent of its eligible 4.93 crore population with both doses of vaccines, while about 62 per cent population has received their first dose, as per the health department statement.
On August 15, Gujarat administered 3.73 lakh doses including 2 lakh first doses and about 1.7 lakh second doses taking the total doses administered till now to 4.01 crore doses.
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Monday said with constant engagement with the Centre and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, vaccine supplies to Gujarat has improved to about 6 lakh doses per day from the earlier 3-4 lakh doses. “Today, Gujarat has a vaccine stock of about 13 lakh doses and for the past few days, we have been administering average 6 lakh doses daily,” said Patel in a briefing.
Vaccination dose
The pace of vaccination in the State has improved to a daily average of about 5.1 lakh doses for the week-ended August 15, as against 4 lakh doses in the preceding week and average of about 2.8 lakh doses for the week before. “If we are able to maintain this momentum and supplies, then we can successfully and quickly complete the vaccinations,” said Patel, who also holds the health portfolio in the State government.
Notably, since August 5, 2021, there were no off-days for vaccinations, meaning vaccinations were held on daily basis. Earlier, the State government had limited vaccinations for five days a week and kept Wednesday and Sunday off days.
On the completion of deadline for the shopowners to compulsorily get their first dose ended on August 15, Patel stated that since there were two extensions in the deadline already given and two special vaccination drives conducted for exclusively the shop and business owners and their staff, there doesn’t seem any need for further extension in the deadline. “Enough opportunity was given to business owners. So, I don’t think many of them are left without a vaccine dose,” he said.
In June, the Gujarat government asked businesses and commercial services providers that have direct public engagement to compulsorily take a vaccine dose to contain the spread of Covid-19 and prevent a possible third wave. Non-compliance would attract penal action under the applicable laws.
As on August 15, a total of 15.80 lakh health workers and frontline workers have received both the doses, and about 19.66 lakh have received their first dose. In the age group of 45 and above, about 71.55 lakh people have been fully vaccinated, while 1.35 crore have received their first dose.
In the 18-44 age group, 1.49 crore first doses were administered, while 10.50 lakh have received their second dose.
New Covid infections in the State have slowed down with test positivity rate of 0.02 per cent. The State is conducting an average 64,000 tests since the start of this month while daily new cases averaged at about 20. As on August 1,5 Gujarat has reported 183 active cases. Total number of cases in the State reached 8,25,182 with 8,14,921 recoveries and 10,078 deaths till Sunday.