India will soon achieve target of administering 1 bn vaccine doses: Govt

India will soon create history by achieving the target of vaccinating over 1 billion people against Covid-19, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pawar said here on Tuesday

India will soon create history by achieving the target of vaccinating over 100 crore people against COVID-19, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pawar said here on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Pawar said vaccination is going on on a war footing in the country. She attributed the fast pace of inoculation to teamwork.

"Apart from tackling the pandemic, the focus (of the government) is on the vaccine production. (A budget of) Rs 35,000 crore is set aside for this purpose," she said.

The cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive has exceeded 99 crore, as per the government data. The countrywide COVID-19 vaccination programme was launched on January 16 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The country will soon create history by achieving the target of vaccinating over 100 crore people against COVID-19," Pawar said.

The minister said vaccine doses have been provided in the entire country in the last nine months and the process has been expedited.

She said the prime minister was personally monitoring the inoculation drive and working to fix loopholes.

Responding to a query, the minister said COVID-19 vaccination for children would start once the necessary approvals are in place.

The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) had last week recommended the grant of Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin in the age group of 2-18 years.

The minister said vaccine production is a huge task and the prime minister is in touch with all the states.

Pawar said Maharashtra has been provided with the highest number of doses of vaccines and added that doses were provided as per demand.

"The Centre is committed to providing vaccines to all the states. Had vaccines not been provided in adequate numbers to Maharashtra the state wouldn't have achieved the feat of a record vaccination," the minister said.

Some ministers in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had earlier alleged that Maharashtra was not getting enough doses from the Centre.

Speaking on the COVID-19 scenario, Pawar said the second wave has not subsided yet and a threat of a third wave persists. "The Centre is closely monitoring the situation," she added.

The minister said the number of COVID-19 cases hasn't come down in Maharashtra and Kerala.