Despite high vaccination rate, Gujarat adds 12% of its overall cases in Mar

Gujarat's daily vaccinations outstrip Maharashtra, but the state has tripled ist growth rate of infections in March

On Tuesday, the daily coronavirus infections declined to 53,480—India had touched a high of 68,020 just two days ago—but the country has added over a million cases in the last month. And, 60% of these have come from the state of Maharashtra alone. While Maharashtra added 22.5% cases to its overall infection tally in March, Punjab tops the states with maximum additions. Nearly a quarter of case additions to the state’s total tally have been in this month.

However, amidst surging infections from these two states, the rising cases in Gujarat have gone unnoticed. While the state, to an extent, had curbed the rise in infections in the first two months of the year, daily cases started rising again in March. The compounded daily growth rate of cases has tripled in the state, with the state adding 12% additional infections to its tally in just a month. In absolute numbers, Gujarat ranks far behind Karnataka and Kerala; however, it ranks third in the country, along with Madhya Pradesh, in terms of daily growth rate of infections.

Ironically, Gujarat is one of the leading states in terms of vaccination of its population. An analysis of state-wise data shows that in terms of per capita vaccinations, Gujarat’s performance is much better than other states.

Although India has completed 63 million vaccinations till now, it has only been able to administer 4.6 doses per 100 people.

Maharashtra may have administered more doses than any other state, but Gujarat has been able to administer 8.6 doses per 100 people; in contrast, Maharashtra has only given 4.9 doses for every 100 people.

While Tripura has administered 16.5 doses per 100 people, among major states with a significant population, Kerala is the only state to outpace Gujarat.

In fact, in the last one week, average daily vaccinations in Gujarat have outstripped Maharashtra's daily average vaccinations.

However, with cases in the state rising faster and even the death tally increasing, it will need to ramp up its speed of vaccination.