Covid-19: 50% of India's adult population fully vaccinated

The government of India targets 100 per cent Covid-19 adult vaccination under the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ programme by December 31 as the country achieved 50 per cent fully vaccinated adult population landmark on Sunday.

“Congratulations India. It is a moment of great pride as over 50 per cent of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated. We will win the battle against Covid-19 together,” tweeted India’s Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

The states/union territories with more than 50 per cent of the adult population fully vaccinated are Andaman Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Tripura.

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D Randeep, commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, said: “We are probably at third place in the country now in second dose coverage. We hope to reach 75 per cent at least by end of this month. 95 per cent would take around 45-60 days.

“Coverage would actually be more than 64 per cent as many have taken the second dose but under a different number or have forgotten to inform the vaccinator to punch as second dose in the CoWIN app,” he added.

Last week the Indian health minister and officials conducted a meeting with states and UTs regarding the “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign and set the targets of 100 per cent first Covid-19 vaccine dose till December 31.

With the administration of 10,418,707 vaccine doses in the span of the last 24 hours, the total Covid-19 vaccine doses given in the country has exceeded 127.61 crores.

India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive was launched on January 16, 2021. Initially, the vaccination was opened for healthcare workers only.

From February 2, frontline workers were made eligible for vaccination.

The vaccination drive was expanded from March 1 to include persons above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with associated specified 20 co-morbidities. It was further expanded to all people above 45 years of age from April 1. From May 1 all persons above 18 years of age were made eligible for Covid-19 vaccination.

• India