On the 217th day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, 26.57 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 9.78 lakh people were given their second dose. (Representative image: Reuters)
More than 36.36 lakh vaccine doses were administered in India on August 20, the Union Health Ministry’s latest provisional report suggested. With that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 57.61 crore.
On the 217th day of the vaccination drive on August 20, 26.57 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 9.78 lakh people were given their second dose.
The country took 85 days to touch the figure of 10 crore. It then took 45 days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore. India took another 24 days to reach 40 crore and 20 more days to cross 50 crore vaccinations, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said.
The government has revised the gap between the two doses for the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), to 12-16 weeks. However, the interval for the second dose of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin remains unchanged, i.e. four weeks.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide vaccination drive on January 16, with healthcare workers at the frontline of India’s COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs. The country began the second phase of the vaccination drive from March 1, in which, everyone above 60 years of age and those over 45 years with comorbidities could start getting the vaccine.
From April 1, vaccination was opened for everyone aged 45 and above with or without comorbidities.
India rolled out the third phase of its COVID-19 vaccination drive for those in the 18-44 age group on May 1.
The central government has ‘liberalised’ the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals, and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers. However, later it announced to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to everyone above the age of 18 years from June 21. The new COVID-19 vaccination policy is a significant shift from the government’s ‘liberalised and accelerated’ policy, announced earlier.
Registration on CoWIN platform for the third phase began on April 28 and is mandatory for the 18-44 age group.
Here are key developments related to the COVID-19 vaccination process:
– Zydus Cadila’s indigenously developed needle-free COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D was granted the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) by the drug regulator on August 20, making it the first vaccine to be administered to beneficiaries in the age group of 12-18 years in the country, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said. Describing the development as a momentous feat, PM Modi said the country is fighting COVID-19 with full vigour.
– Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on the day that it has submitted an application to the Indian drug regulator to conduct a study of its COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents aged 12-17 years. The US-based pharmaceutical company noted that it is committed to facilitating global equitable access to its COVID-19 vaccine and recognise the unmet needs of children.
– Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on the day that the authorities in Pune have decided to complete administering the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines, following which the first jabs will be given to citizens. The state government is taking efforts to get maximum number of vaccine doses for citizens, Pawar said, after holding a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in Pune district.
– Two persons were arrested for allegedly opening a clinic illegally for COVID-19 vaccination in the Jaidpur area in Barabanki, police said on the day. A complaint was filed by Dr Sunil Kumar at CHC in Satrikh that some persons have opened a fake clinic and were administering COVID-19 vaccines, they said.
– The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said the vaccination drive against COVID-19 will resume at civic and government-run centres in Mumbai from August 21 as fresh stock of over 1.6 lakh doses had arrived.
– The Gujarat government announced on the day that the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive will be suspended on August 22, on account of Raksha Bandhan festival. In a statement, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who handles health portfolio, said the decision to take a day’s break on Sunday (August 22) was taken so that women health workers involved in the inoculation drive can celebrate Raksha Bandhan with their families.
Here’s the vaccination count for some states:
| States | Total Beneficiaries |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2,60,98,848 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 9,18,554 |
| Assam | 1,53,55,704 |
| Bihar | 3,21,99,549 |
| Chandigarh | 10,36,399 |
| Chhattisgarh | 1,33,94,367 |
| Delhi | 1,22,38,735 |
| Goa | 14,87,371 |
| Gujarat | 4,23,24,111 |
| Haryana | 1,45,62,078 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 68,15,998 |
| Jharkhand | 1,15,30,052 |
| Karnataka | 3,62,80,162 |
| Kerala | 2,57,13,271 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3,96,88,281 |
| Maharashtra | 5,19,04,037 |
| Odisha | 2,04,28,259 |
| Punjab | 1,20,57,913 |
| Rajasthan | 3,93,06,626 |
| Tamil Nadu | 2,80,35,129 |
| Telangana | 1,67,66,856 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 6,31,49,731 |
| Uttarakhand | 76,56,606 |
| West Bengal | 3,57,37,762 |
