India overtakes US in COVID vaccination drive

NEW DELHI: India has achieved another milestone in its ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive by overtaking the US in terms of total number of doses administered so far, securing highest position among top six countries of the world.

India has so far administered Covid vaccine doses to 32,36,63,297 people while the number of people inoculated so far in the US are 32,33,27,328. If compared to the timeline, India's Covid vaccination drive started on January 16 this year almost one month after the similar exercise was started by the US on December 14 last year.

India's cumulative vaccination coverage has exceeded 32.36 crores on Sunday. A total of 32,36,63,297 vaccine doses have been administered through 43,21,898 sessions, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) citing provisional report received till 7 a.m. on Monday. The Ministry said that 17,21,268 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

As per global vaccine tracker report till 8 a.m. on Monday, India is at top position in terms of inoculating maximum Covid vaccines to its citizens followed by the US, the UK (7,67,74,990), Germany (7,14,37,514), France (5,24,57,288), and Italy (4,96,50,721).

Interestingly, India achieved the goal quicker despite it started the world's largest inoculation drive one month later compared to these five countries. The drive first started by the UK on December 8 last year followed by the US while Germany, France and Italy started the exercise on December 27 last year.

The government said that the new phase of universalization of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from June 21, accelerated the pace and expanded the scope of vaccination throughout the country.

Following the landmark achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated all those who are driving the momentum of India's vaccination drive.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: "India's vaccination drive keeps gaining momentum! Congrats to all those who are driving this effort. Our commitment remains, vaccines for all, free for all." (IANS)

Also Read: '3rd COVID wave is in our hands, vaccine key solution' Says Dr V. K. Paul