Small Minded Great Britain

UK’s refusal to recognise Covishield is inexplicable and a terrible signal

- Amitabh Kant

We have long known that vaccines were key to returning the world to normalcy. Without vaccines, we would still be staring at lockdowns of uncertain length. Healthcare systems would continue to be under pressure. The fact that there are multiple vaccines in the world 12-14 months of the first lockdown is a testament to human ingenuity and determination. Vaccines have allowed economies to open up, children to return to school and normalcy resume.

India has been at the forefront of this fight. Our domestic vaccine manufacturing capabilities have been leveraged to serve the world. We have also developed an indigenous vaccine. Currently, underway is the world’s largest vaccination drive. All citizens irrespective of their income status are entitled to free vaccination. Those who can pay are encouraged to use private hospital vaccination centres.

Our target is to cover 900 million people aged 18+ by December 2021. The vaccination drive in the country commenced with vaccination to all healthcare workers. The programme was expanded with time to include vaccination of front-line workers, citizens more than 60 years of age, citizens more than 45 years of age, and eventually citizens more than 18 years of age. 100% of vaccine doses were procured by GoI and provided free of cost to state governments. State governments were in turn to administer vaccination free of cost to defined priority groups.

So far, total vaccine doses have crossed 800 million, with 600 million+ having received their first dose, and 204 million people fully vaccinated. At our peak, we administered 25 million doses in one day. To put it in perspective, the entire adult population of Australia would be covered in a day at such a pace. This was more than what all of Europe achieved in 11 days in September.