India crosses historic one billion COVID-19 vaccine milestone
COVID-19 vaccination
On October 21 (Thursday), overall coverage for India's COVID-19 vaccination drive exceeded the 1 billion mark, marking a watershed moment.
According to the CoWIN site, the digital platform used to manage immunisation records, a total of 1 billion vaccination doses had been provided to eligible recipients at 9:47 am today.
Also read | ‘Historic milestone’: PM Modi, world leaders congratulate India for administering one billion COVID-19 doses
The achievement was accomplished more than 10 months after India's COVID-19 vaccination programme began on January 16.
Also read | COVID-19 vaccination in India cross 100 billion. What about its neighbours?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it a "triumph of Indian science" in India's fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
For a country that had supply constraints and vaccine reluctance in the early stages, reaching the 1 billion mark is a significant accomplishment in and of itself.
Also read | India's mammoth COVID-19 vaccination drive: The body is an Ambassador car, but the engine is a Ferrari
Initially, the vaccine was exclusively available to Health Care Workers (HCWs). Front-line employees became eligible for vaccination on February 2.
State and Central Police officers, Armed Force members, Home Guards, Civil Defence & Disaster Management Volunteers, Municipal employees, Prison Staff, PRI Staff, and Revenue workers involved in confinement and surveillance, Railway Protection Force, and election staff were among those participating initially.
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The vaccination campaign was expanded on March 1 to cover those over the age of 60 and those over the age of 45 who have one of the designated 20 comorbidities.
From April 1, it was extended to all adults above the age of 45.
COVID-19 vaccination became available to all adults over the age of 18 on May 1.
The figure is twice the amount of vaccinations provided in the United States, five times that of Japan, nine times that of Germany, and 10 times that of France, according to the government in a presentation lauding the "vaccine century."
The central government recalled the journey to 1 billion vaccine doses in a presentation that detailed the milestones reached by the countrywide immunisation campaign from its inception on January 16, 2021.
It stated that CoWIN had so far enrolled 760 millionbeneficiaries.
It also stated that for the first time, India deployed drones to distribute vaccinations to remote areas of the country.
The country recorded 14,623 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, in addition to 197 deaths in the previous 24 hours.
(With inputs from agencies)