India marks the first anniversary of the nationwide vaccination drive against Covid-19 today. The country has so far administered 156 crore vaccine doses, of which 99 crore doses have been given in rural India. 70% of our adult population is fully vaccinated wherein more than 3 crore children have got their first dose since the program began. Additionally, precautionary doses, also called booster shots, are now being administered to frontline workers and vulnerable individuals above the age of 60 years.
It was on this day last year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the world’s largest vaccination drive to combat the pandemic.
India is leading the world with its fastest vaccination pace
Since the beginning of the world’s largest vaccination drive, the country has battled both vaccine hesitancy and vaccine shortage to reach current vaccine demand across the nation and abroad.
A lot has happened since the first vaccine dose was administered on January 16, 2021, let’s take a recap of the “world’s largest vaccination drive”
- 2nd January 2021 – Emergency Use Authorisation was granted to two “made in India” vaccines namely, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
- January 16, 2021: Nationwide roll-out of vaccination began for doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers including Safai Karamcharis.
- February 19, 2021: 1 crore vaccination milestone achieved!
- March 1, 2021: Vaccination registration begins through CoWin portal, Arogya Setu and Umang App.
Moreover, the vaccination drive began for those above the age of 60 years and those with co-morbidities in the 45-60 year age group
- April 1, 2021: India crosses landmark milestone with 10 crore vaccine doses. All above the age of 45 years became eligible for Covid vaccination.
- May 1, 2021: All adults (18+) became eligible for Covid vaccination
- June 25, 2021: India administers 25 crore vaccine doses!
- August 6, 2021: India made a half-century by crossing landmark of 50 crore vaccine doses
- September 17, 2021: On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, India administers over 2,5 crore vaccine doses; highest ever in a single day!
- October 4, 2021: ICMR launches “i-Drone” for delivering vaccines.
- October 21, 2021: India hits vaccine century with the administration of 100 crore vaccine doses.
- November 3, 2021: Government launched Har Ghar Dastak (door-to-door) vaccination campaign to achieve 100 per cent first dose coverage
New Year, New Milestones! (Year 2022)
- January 3, 2022: Adolescent population (15-18 years) began receiving Covid-19 vaccine
- January 10, 2022: Administration of precautionary dose began for frontline workers and vulnerable people above the age of 60 years
- January 10, 2022: Over 3 crore children vaccinated against COVID19
- January 16, 2022: India completes 1 year of Largest vaccination drive, administers over 155 crore vaccine doses!
Vaccines Approved in India till date
In India, eight Covid-19 vaccines have been licenced for emergency use in the past year, namely Covishield and Covovax from the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin and Corbevax from Bharat Biotech, Russia’s Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccination, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D, from Biological E.
Covishield and indigenously developed Covaxin have been the backbone of India’s vaccination drive wherein Sputnik V failed to take off in the India pharma market while ZyCoV-D has not been rolled out yet. Moreover, Moderna has not entered the Indian market as an agreement has not yet been reached yet.
At present, Covaxin is the only vaccine being administered to children.
Last year in November, the World Health Organisation issued emergency use listing for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, making it the eighth vaccine in the world to receive the global health body’s approval.
AatmaNirbhar Vaccines: Ensuring Vaccines for all
With the fastest ever roll out of vaccines, let’s take a look at India’s monthly production capacity of vaccines (in doses):
- Covisheld Serum ( Serum Institute): 25 crore
- Covaxin (Bharat Biotech Intl. Ltd.): 6 crore
- Zycov D (Zydus Cadilla): 1 crore
- Corbevax (Bio E): 6 Crore
- Covavax (Serum Institute): 10 Crore
- Janssen (Bio E): 5 crore
To ensure gender parity in the Nationwide vaccination drive, the government has made concentrated efforts due to which a total of 49% Females and 51% males have received vaccine doses till date.
Currently, as India faces a surge in the COVID19 cases due to new variant, Omicron, the country’s non-stop vaccination drive will continue to play a decisive role in the fight against the pandemic.