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New Delhi: At a time when India is ‘celebrating’ administering 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, it has emerged that globally, the country has the widest gap between the proportion of the population that has got at least one dose and two doses, The Hindu has reported.
According to the Bloomberg Tracker, which maps vaccination trends globally, 51% of vaccine-eligible Indians got at least one dose and 21.9% received two shots – accounting for a ratio of 2.4, the highest in the world.
On the other hand, 82% of people in China received at least one dose and 76% have received two doses, constituting a ratio of 1.1. Similarly, the ratio for the US stands at 1.15, after 66.2% of its population getting at least one dose and 57.3% fully vaccinated with two shots. For the European Union, the same ratio works out to be 1.04, with 69% of the population receiving at least one dose and 66% two doses.
According to experts, the yawning gap between those who are partially and fully vaccinated in India is attributed to the spacing of 12-16 weeks between two doses of Covishield, which accounts for 88% of administered vaccines in the country so far. The gap is among the longest globally.
However, the time period between two shots of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is four weeks, and in the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine – as Covishield is known globally – it is eight weeks.
The second reason for the gap between those who are partially and fully vaccinated in India is the fact that the pace of vaccine administration has picked up only after July, until when it had been a sluggish affair with multiple hiccups.
Meanwhile, taking stock of the situation on the account of India administering 1 billion doses, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan urged officials concerned to “speed up vaccination” in a meeting held with representatives from states and Union territories on October 23.
“Highlighting the sizeable number of eligible beneficiaries who have not received their second dose of vaccine, the Union health secretary urged the states and UTs to focus on those beneficiaries who are waiting for their second dose after their interval period has been over,” a statement from the Union health ministry noted.
Also read: When Modi Celebrates 100 Crore Doses Mark, We Can Only Ask What He Wants To Forget
Analysing data further reveals that after September 17, the day when the country registered an all-time high of 2.5 crore vaccinations in one day, there has been a dip in the number of doses administered. For a month now, the number of vaccines administered weekly has fallen sharply from 6.6 crore in the period between September 11 and 17 to 4.2 crore in the first week of October and 3.6 crore in the week of October 16-22, according to The Hindu.
On the other hand, in the same period, the number of second doses administered in the country has gone up. Significantly, for the first time since May 8-14, the weekly number of second doses exceeded single doses. There were 2.1 crore second doses administered in the last week compared to 1.5 crore first doses.
The number of people getting their first doses, however, has fallen from 4 crore to 1.5 crore. Given that India has set itself the ambitious target of fully vaccinating all adults, accounting for 94 crore people of the total population, by the end of the year, the country needs to administer over one crore doses a day.