Expanded Covid-19 vaccine drive: 15.28 lakh shots to people aged 45, above
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 1
More than 15 lakh citizens aged 45 years and above received their first COVID 19 shots on Thursday as India expanded the inoculation basket to cover more people, irrespective of co-morbidities, with the aim of fighting the surging second wave of infections.
Out of 17, 47,094 vaccine doses administered till 8 pm today (the 76th day of the vaccine drive), 15, 28,639 were received by those aged 45 and older – making up 87.5 per cent of all the shots given as the third phase of inoculation began.
The first two phases covered health workers, frontline workers, people aged 60 and above and 45 to 59 year olds with co-morbid conditions.
Cumulative vaccinations in India had crossed 6,75,36,392 by tonight with the Centre asking states to ensure inoculations in public and private centres on all days including gazetted holidays until April 30.
The objective is to expand the vaccination basket and expedite the achievement of population level herd immunity which has become critical as India’s daily COVID 19 cases continue to soar reaching a five-month high of 72,330 today.
It was on October 11, 2020 when the country recorded 74,383 infections.
The 24-hour peak was reached in mid-September last when cases touched 97,000.
Total COVID 19 load today rose to 1, 22, 21,665 and active cases (requiring hospital of home isolation) surged to 5, 84,055 after a consistent rise for 22 days. The rising active cases are a cause of worry as these can overwhelm the health systems. These now make up 4.78 per cent of the total infections as recovery rate has slipped further to 93.89 per cent.
India’s active caseload had fallen to a low of 1, 35,926 on February 12 which was 1.25 per cent of the all cases.
Toll also rose further today reaching 1,62,927 with 459 daily new deaths, the highest in 116 days.
With the situation looking glum, the Centre, in a step to exponentially expand the countrywide vaccination drive, decided to operationalize both public and private sector COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) on all days of month of April (from today till April 30, 2021).
The Centre wrote to states asking them to make the necessary arrangements to provide COVID vaccinations in all centres on all days of the month, including gazetted holidays during April 2021.
“This step has been taken after deliberations with the states on March 31 to optimally use all vaccine centres across public and private sectors to ensure a rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination. The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level,” said the Health Ministry.
The earlier two phases of inoculations have covered over 6 crore people so far as against the targeted 30 crore (health, frontline workers, 60 plus people and 45 to 59 year olds with co morbidities).
In the current phase all 45 years plus people irrespective of co morbid conditions will be covered.
TOTAL VACCINE DOSES ADMINISTERED SO FAR
6.75 Crore today (88,48,558 health workers with the 1st dose, 52,63,108 health workers 2nd dose, 93,99,776 frontline workers 1st dose, 39,18,646 frontline workers 2nd dose and 4,01,06,304 who are over 45 years old.
