Day 2 of new Covid-19 vaccine policy: Jab count drops after day of high

Day two report card A look at the top states that gave the highest number of doses on Day One of the new vaccine policy, but numbers slipped drastically for most of them

As the momentum of vaccination dropped from 8.8 million to over 5 million on Day Two of the new vaccine policy, the government said the surge in numbers was not sudden and a result of collaborative planning between the Centre and states.

“The jump in daily vaccination numbers on June 21 was not sudden but a result of coordinated strategy and planning between states and the union who worked very hard. It is possible if both capacity and vaccines are available,” Rajesh Bhushan, health secretary, said while addressing a press briefing on the Covid situation in India.

The government also said that the June 21 numbers had instilled confidence in the country that such achievement is possible and inspired all districts to ramp up vaccination numbers.

However, Madhya Pradesh, which gave a record 1.7 million vaccine doses on June 21, slipped to the 32nd spot the next day with less than 5,000 doses.

States that kept the momentum going to a great extent included Uttar Pradesh, which, till around 7 PM on CoWIN dashboard, was leading the states in daily vaccination numbers with more than 740,000 jabs. Karnataka while still in the top five was shy of its Day One number by a huge margin having administered less than 400,000 doses. Maharashtra, which stayed out of the top five tally on Day One, as 18-plus vaccinations were put on hold, got back in the fray at second place with more than 500,000 doses given on Tuesday.

Between June 1 and June 21, the average number of doses given every day was around 3.5 million, according to the ministry. More than 92 per cent of the total doses given on June 21 were in government centres. Of the total vaccinations on that day around 64 per cent were in rural areas and 36 per cent in urban areas.

The government is also concerned about the gender gap in the vaccinations with a 43 per cent share in total doses on Monday going to women. “This imbalance has to be fixed. More women have to come forward to take the vaccine,” said V K Paul, member-health, NITI Aayog.

Around 294 million vaccine doses have been provided to states so far and over 21 million are still available with the states to administer. The ministry also said that around 3.4 million doses are in the pipeline to be supplied to the states within the next three days. 

According to the revised vaccine policy that provides free vaccinations to all above 18 in government centres, three-fourths of the total supplies are available for the Centre, and the remaining are for the private sector. Population, disease burden, the progress of vaccination, and vaccine wastage are among the main criteria for the allocation of vaccines to states. 

Paul said that timely availability and advance visibility given to states on vaccine supply enabled them to plan better and they intimate the districts and covid vaccination centres. “As production rises our capacity will rise,” Paul said.