Fully-vaccinated number exceeds partially jabbed for first time: Health Min

With the number of fully vaccinated people surpassing the partially vaccinated eligible population for the first time in the country, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the ongoing “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign and “Jan Bhagidari” have made this feat possible.

“The staunch political commitment of the Government of India to protect every citizen from Covid-19 through vaccination has enabled the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive to achieve several feats ever since its inception on January 16, 2021,” the health minister said.

Health ministry said that for the first time the number of fully vaccinated individuals has surpassed those who have been administered only a single dose of vaccine on Wednesday. The country has in total administered over 1.14 billion doses as per provisional reports.

Of these, 758 million were administered as the first dose and 383 million doses were second doses. Half of the adult population who took their first dose has received the second dose as well.

Congratulating the collective spirit of the country on this achievement, Mandaviya said in a tweet, “We will win the battle against Covid-19 together,” he stated.

Under the month-long door-to-door vaccination campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 21, healthcare workers have been focusing on districts where less than 50 per cent of the eligible population has been vaccinated.

The Health Minister in a press statement also assured that there was no shortage of vaccine doses in the country. He urged people to come forward for a second dose, and motivate those in their family and community to take both the doses.

With a little over 10,000 Covid infections reported yesterday, India’s trend of less than 50,000 daily new cases has continued for 143 days on the trot now.

Active cases presently constitute 0.37 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is lowest since March 2020. India’s weekly test positivity rate at 0.96 per cent has stayed less than 2 per cent for the last 54 days now. The daily positivity rate was reported to be 0.82 per cent according to the health ministry data.