New Delhi: In a historic achievement, India’s cumulative Covid19 vaccination drive has surpassed the 200-Crore milestone today. As per provisional reports till 1 pm, a total of 2,00,00,15,631 doses were administered across the country. This has been achieved through 2,63,26,111 sessions.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the countrymen on bringing about this significant feat. He called India’s vaccination drive “unparalleled in scale and speed”.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also congratulated the country on achieving this landmark in only 18 months. Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar also thanked the healthcare workers for their hard work, vision and innovation in setting a new record in the service of humanity.
India’s nation-wide Covid vaccination program was launched by PM on 16th January, 2021. Several systematic interventions were also carried out in ensuring capacity building for carrying out this nationwide exercise. Existing supply chain for storage and transport of the vaccines was leveraged and strengthened and effective monitoring of vaccine distribution and assured availability and efficient utilization of vaccines and syringes was ensured at all times.
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India’s free and voluntary nationwide vaccination exercise is also being carried out in a citizen friendly approach through initiatives like Har Ghar Dastak, Workplace CVC, School based vaccination, vaccination of persons with no identity documents, Near-to-Home CVC and Mobile Vaccination Teams. With 71% of CVCs located in rural areas and over 51% of vaccine doses administered to women, India’s national Covid vaccination programme also ensured geographical and gender equity.
Despite the decline in Covid cases across the country, consistent efforts were ongoing to vaccinate all eligible citizens. This is exemplified by the fact that it took almost 9 months to reach the 100 Cr mark and another 9 months to reach the 200 Cr vaccination mark since the start of the vaccination drive on 16 Jan’ 2021, with the highest single day vaccination record of 2.5 Cr doses achieved on 17 Sept 2021.
On 15th July 2022, the Union Government launched a 75 day long ‘Covid vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’ to provide free precaution dose to all eligible adult population at Government Covid vaccination centres (CVCs). This special drive, part of the celebration for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, is being implemented in a ‘mission mode’ to increase uptake of precaution dose of the vaccine.
