India celebrates 1 bn Covid-19 vaccine doses with song, film, national flag

India has so far reported 34.1 million Covid-19 cases and more than 452,000 deaths.

India completed administering 1 billion doses (100 crore) of Covid-19 vaccines on Thursday: an event the government is celebrating with a song, promotional film and announcements on airplanes, ships and railway stations.

"Congratulations India! This is the result of the leadership of our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Twitter at 9:48am.

Modi, accompanied by Mandaviya, visited the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi and interacted with hospital officials as India completed the vaccine landmark.

"India scripts history," Modi said on Twitter. "We are witnessing the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and collective spirit of (1.3 billion) Indians." Modi marked the occasion with a visit to a government hospital in New Delhi.

India had administered 995 million vaccine does (99.54 crore) till Wednesday, PTI reported citing data till 7.15 pm data from the Co-WIN portal. As many as 75 per cent of all adults have taken the first dose and around 31 per cent are fully vaccinated with two doses, according to the portal.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which relies heavily on India for supplies to its global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX, congratulated the country for reaching the landmark, according to Reuters.

"India's progress must be viewed in the context of the country's commendable commitment and efforts to ensure that these life-saving vaccines are accessible globally," said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director WHO South-East Asia.

Mandaviya will launch a song by singer Kailash Kher and an audiovisual film at the Red Fort in Delhi: part of government festivities for a "great achievement", reported NDTV.com. The country will unfurl its largest national flag at Delhi’s Red Fort.

Mandaviya had earlier said there will be announcements on airplanes, ships, metros and at railway stations when India achieves its target of one billion doses.

The government wants all of India's 944 million adults to get vaccinated this year. Daily shots have averaged 5 million this month, a fifth of September's peak, though states are sitting on record stocks of more than 100 million as domestic output of the AstraZeneca vaccine soars, said Reuters.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that India’s 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses milestone masks a yawning gap between the number of people who have been fully inoculated and those that have had just one shot. The country has only given two shots to nearly 21 per cent of its population of about 1.4 billion, according to its vaccine tracker. By comparison, 51 per cent have had a single dose, making it one of the highest disparities in the world, the tracker shows.

China is the only other country to have administered over a billion vaccine doses: it crossed the landmark in June and it is also the only other country to have a population of more than one billion.

India on Thursday reported 18,454 new cases of Covid-19 and 160 deaths from the disease in 24 hours. It has 34 million cases in total and 4,52,811 people have died of the disease.