Amrit Mahotsav campaign pushed Covid booster dose coverage to 27%

The 75-day-long Amrit Mahotsav campaign also helped salvage wastage of vaccine doses

The Centre’s 75-day Amrit Mahotsav Covid-19 free vaccination drive helped to improve coverage of precaution doses from 8 per cent in mid-July to 27 per cent now.

More than 7.6 million first doses, 23.5 million second doses, and 159.2 million precaution doses were administered during this period. More than 2.47 million doses were administered daily, including two million precaution doses per day, as part of the campaign.

The 75-day-long campaign, in which special Covid-19 vaccination drives were organised across India to increase the uptake of precaution doses, concluded on Friday. Everyone above the age of 18 years and those who have completed six months after the second dose are eligible for the precaution dose.

From a daily average of 470,000 doses per day till July 15, the number of precaution shots went up to 2.04 million per day (from July 15 to July 26). The number of total vaccine doses has gone up from 1.23 million per day (till July 15) to 2.7 million per day (since July 15). According to the health ministry, the coverage for precaution doses has gone up from 8 per cent (July 14) to 11 per cent (as of July 25) thanks to the campaign.

The Union Health Ministry said on Friday that 11,104 camps were organised at bus stations, 5,664 camps at railway stations, 511 camps at airports, over 150,004 camps at schools and colleges, 4,451 camps at routes of religious yatras, and over 1,130,044 camps at workplaces and industrial establishments.

The campaign also helped to salvage vaccine doses from getting wasted. In mid-July the Serum Institute of India had around 200 mn doses of stock, and it hoped to save at least 100 mn doses with the drive. Bharat Biotech had a stock of 50 million doses at its plants around April and had halted production of Covaxin.

 

75-day campaign 

• 7.6 mn first doses
• 23.5 mn second doses
• 159.2 mn precaution doses
• 2.47 mn doses administered daily
• July 15 8% coverage of booster dose for eligible adult population
• September 30  27% coverage of booster dose for eligible adult population

CAMPS  

• 1,104 camps were organised at bus stations
• 5,664 camps at railway stations
• 150,004 camps at various schools and colleges
• 4,451 camps at routes of religious yatras
• 1,130,044 camps at various private and government workplaces
• Total 13,01,778