India Will Be In Position To Vaccinate All Adults by Year-End, Says Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

Earlier, Harsh Vardhan had said India will have procured 267 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of this year, and will be in a position to inoculate at least all of its adult population, according to an official statement.

New Delhi: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Friday said that India will be in a position to vaccinate at least its entire adult population against Covid-19 by the end of this year. The minister also informed that the Modi government is actively supporting vaccine manufacturers in increase the production and availability of vaccine doses to the population.

“Between August and December, India will have procured 216 crore vaccine doses. By July itself, 51 crore doses will be procured,” Vardhan stated at a Covid-19 review meeting with officials from nine states and union territories.

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Union Health Minister @drharshvardhan reviewed Public Health Response to #COVID19 and Progress of #Vaccination with 9 States/UTs today.https://t.co/cs5hYxzf6A pic.twitter.com/Wovk4y2cic

— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) May 21, 2021

Earlier, Harsh Vardhan had said India will have procured 267 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of this year, and will be in a position to inoculate at least all of its adult population, according to an official statement.

The minister said that 51 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses will be made available by July and 216 crore more between August and December. He urged states to ensure that the healthcare and frontline workers are fully vaccinated, as they form the vulnerable categories.

Interacting with the health ministers and principal secretaries/ additional chief secretaries of West Bengal and eight northeast states, Vardhan said, “Between August to December 2021, India will have procured 216 crore vaccine doses while, by July this year, 51 crore doses will be procured.”

He said that by the end of the year, the country will be in a position to vaccinate at least all of its adult population, according to the health ministry statement.

Covid situation

The daily rise in coronavirus cases in India remained below 3 lakh for the fifth consecutive day with 2.59 lakh new cases recorded in a single day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. With a total of 2,59,551 fresh cases, India”s total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,60,31,991.

The death toll climbed to 2,91,331 with 4,209 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases further reduced to 30,27,925 comprising 11.63 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate improved to 87.25 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,27,12,735, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.12 per cent, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on  October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on  November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.