NEW DELHI, Jan 16: As India on Sunday completed one year in its vaccination drive against Covid, the prime minister Narendra Modi, the union home minister Amit Shah and several other senior leaders saluted the health workers and others involved in making the drive successful.
The Centre also issued a postal stamp on Sunday afternoon to mark the completion of one year of the inoculation drive.
Through a tweet, Modi said he saluted “each and every individual” associated with it and said the programme added great strength to the fight against Covid. “Today we mark 1 year of vaccination drive. I salute each and every individual who is associated with the vaccination drive. Our vaccination programme has added great strength to the fight against Covid-19. It has led to saving lives and thus protecting livelihoods,” he tweeted.
The countrywide vaccination drive against COVID-19 was launched by Modi on January 16, last year beginning with the healthcare workers and during the one year period over 156.76 crore vaccine doses were administered. According to health ministry officials, over 92 % of the adult population have received at least one dose while over 68% have been fully vaccinated.
Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2.
The next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions and vaccination of all people aged over 45 from April 1. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the inoculation drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.
India started administering the precaution dose of Covid vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers, which include polling personnel deployed in the five poll-bound states, and comorbid people aged 60 and above from January 10 in a bid to stymie the coronavirus spread driven by its Omicron variant.
The health ministry has claimed that India’s vaccination programme has been one of the most successful and largest inoculation programmes when compared to many developed western nations with a significantly low population base to vaccinate.
In the vaccination drive, the country has achieved several milestones, which have no precedent in the world, including administering over 100 crore doses in less than nine months, administering 2.51 crore doses in a single day and several times administering one crore doses in a day, it said.
Covid vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore mark on October 21 last year and 150-crore mark on January 7. More than 43.19 lakh precaution doses of the vaccine have been administered. Also, 3,38,50,912 first doses have been given to beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group.
India reported 2,71,202 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, marginally higher than Saturday’s infections, data updated by the Union Ministry of Health showed on Sunday morning. The positivity rate was also lower at 16.28 per cent from 16.66 per cent. The country also recorded 314 Covid-19 related fatalities in the last 24 hours, which have taken the death toll to 4,86,066. As many as 1,38,331 people recovered from the infection and the number of active cases now stand at 15,50,377. A total of 7,743 Omicron cases have been detected so far across the country—an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.
Meanwhile, amidst rise in the Covid cases, the authorities at the famous Shree Dwarkadhish Temple of Lord Krishna at Dwarka in Gujarat have decided to keep the temple shut for the devotees from Monday till January 23 to avoid overcrowding due to the Full Moon Day. “A large number of devotees visit Shree Dwarkadhish Temple every Purnima, which falls on January 17. To avoid overcrowding amid a rise in coronavirus cases, it has been decided to keep the temple closed for devotees from January 17 to 23. Daily prayers will be offered by priests, which can be viewed live online,” said the temple’s administrative office in a press release.
(Manas Dasgupta)