India overtakes US in total Covid-19 vaccine doses given, says govt

The health ministry on Mon­day said India had overtaken the US in the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered so far, having given more than 323.66 million doses as of 8 AM on June 28. 

According to Our World in Data, the US has given 323.33 million doses so far, covering 54 per cent of its population with at least one dose. India has vaccinated 19 per cent of its population with a single dose. The government has also advised against laxity at this stage cautioning that the second wave of Covid-19 has still not subsided and 80 districts in the country still have high positivity. The information was provided in the 29th meeting of the Group of Ministers on Covid-19, chaired by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. 

While 19 states are reporting fatality figures in single digits, four states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are reporting more than a hundred deaths daily. 

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, while addressing a public health summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, said the medical fraternity should not create panic for a third wave and should advise precaution instead. “Let us put our minds together to fight the second wave instead of talking about the third one. Instead of being tem­pted to make alarmist obse­rvations we could be a little more reassuring,” Singh said. He said India had one of the fastest Covid vaccination drives in the world and those raising do not take into account that it’s a huge and heterogeneous country. 

“It is heterogeneous in character, customs, topography... In the next two weeks, we will be able to streamline the vaccination drive and provide enough vaccines at the district level,” he said. 

Speaking at the same event, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Director Randeep Guleria said while health was a state subject, currently, there was a lack of coordination among states.

Interest in CoWIN from 50 countries

India has received interest in CoWIN from 50 countries across Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The government is planning to launch an open-source version of the app, which is the backbone of India’s Covid vaccination drive to enable free access to any interested country, National Health Authority Chief Exec­utive R S Sharma said. “Vaccin­ation at this moment seems to be the only way of coming out of the pandemic. In five mo­nths, CoWin has grown to 300 million-plus registra­tions,” Sharma said.