News Analysis India

Tag: COVID-19 vaccination in India

  • West Bengal, Jharkhand and UP among states falling behind in Covid vaccination

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: India on Monday achieved a remarkable feat of administering 75 crore Covid-19 jabs. States like West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the worst performers in the exercise so far.

    Until Monday morning, West Bengal, with only 46.6% of its population covered with at least one dose of the vaccine, was at the bottom of the chart of states, followed closely by Jharkhand, where only 47.8% of the total adult population received the shots.

    The country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh hardly fares better, with less than 49% of the population having received the shots yet, which are being touted as keys to post-pandemic normal life. The country’s second most populous state, Bihar was only a tad better with a little over 50% of the 18-plus population covered with vaccination yet.

    In Himachal Pradesh, 100% of the population has received at least one dose while in Uttarakhand this figure is 87%. In Kerala, where Covid-19 cases have begun to show some decline after a huge surge for over two months, a little over 83% of the population has been covered with at least one dose.

    A health ministry official said while small states were expected to do better, the Centre was constantly guiding larger states to do better. “We have been asking the states to especially prioritise the 45-plus population for full inoculation and also urging the younger population to come forward for the shots in districts where coverage is better,” he said.

    The official added that states had been asked to prepare district-level plans to raise the vaccination rate and special focus was to be given in districts with over 10% test positivity rate or those reporting more than 100 daily cases.

    In the country as a whole, nearly 61% of the population has now been covered with at least one dose but the percentage of population which is fully vaccinated is just over 20%. The numbers achieved yet, however, make the government’s target of vaccinating all 94 crore adult population till December look distant.In September, average daily vaccination so far has been nearly 72 lakh, way ahead of the July average of 43 lakh.

  • Covid-19: This Kashmir village is India’s first to achieve 100% adult vaccination

    By Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: A remote hamlet in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir has become the first village in India to vaccinate all its adult population against COVID-19, officials said on Tuesday.

    The credit goes to the healthcare workers whose strenuous efforts shot Weyan hamlet, with an adult population of 362, to national fame, they said.

    “The village is located only 28 kilometres away from Bandipora district headquarters, but a distance of 18 kilometres has to be covered by foot as there is no motorable road,” an official of the health department said.

    He said the task of vaccinating all the residents was even more difficult as the village consists of nomadic families who go to higher reaches for grazing their livestock.

    “There is no internet access in the village. So it was not possible for the residents to get appointments for vaccination like the way people in urban areas do,” Bashir Ahmed Khan, Chief Medical Officer, Bandipora said while explaining the difficulty faced by the healthcare workers.

    The vaccination in the village was covered under ‘J&K model’, which is a 10-point strategy to vaccinate entire eligible population at accelerated pace.

    Despite initial vaccine hesitancy, Jammu and Kashmir has achieved 70 per cent vaccination in the 45+ age group, almost double the national average, the official said.

    Commenting on the achievement, Yatish Yadav, media advisor to Jammu and Kashmir government, said the Union territory was raising the bar in the Covid vaccination drive.

    “#JammuAndKashmirModel. And we thought up to now that Everest was the highest and toughest peak of Himalayas. But, some journey brings a new light, a new life. Team J&K raising the bar on vaccination drive,” he tweeted.

  • J-&K hamlet first village in India to achieve 100 per cent vaccination of its adult population against Covid

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: A remote hamlet in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir has become the first village in India to vaccinate all its adult population against COVID-19, officials said on Tuesday.

    The credit goes to the healthcare workers whose strenuous efforts shot Weyan hamlet, with an adult population of 362, to national fame, they said.

    “The village is located only 28 kilometres away from Bandipora district headquarters, but a distance of 18 kilometres has to be covered by foot as there is no motorable road,” an official of the health department said.

    He said the task of vaccinating all the residents was even more difficult as the village consists of nomadic families who go to higher reaches for grazing their livestock.

    “There is no internet access in the village. So it was not possible for the residents to get appointments for vaccination like the way people in urban areas do,” Bashir Ahmed Khan, Chief Medical Officer, Bandipora said while explaining the difficulty faced by the healthcare workers.

    The vaccination in the village was covered under ‘J&K model’, which is a 10-point strategy to vaccinate entire eligible population at accelerated pace.

    Despite initial vaccine hesitancy, Jammu and Kashmir has achieved 70 per cent vaccination in the 45+ age group, almost double the national average, the official said.

    Commenting on the achievement, Yatish Yadav, media advisor to Jammu and Kashmir government, said the Union territory was raising the bar in the Covid vaccination drive.

    “#JammuAndKashmirModel. And we thought up to now that Everest was the highest and toughest peak of Himalayas. But, some journey brings a new light, a new life. Team J&K raising the bar on vaccination drive,” he tweeted.

  • Jharkhand CM writes to PM seeking free Covid-19 vaccine for 18-44 age group

    By PTI
    RANCHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking free COVID jabs for the 18-44 age group, saying the state was unable to incur nearly Rs 1,100 crore on it due to stressed resources.

    In the letter sent on Monday, Soren said the state was battling a deadly second wave of COVID-19 with its limited resources.

    The financial burden on the state for vaccination of the age cohort of 18-44 years is likely to be more than Rs 1,100 crore considering 1.57 crore eligible beneficiaries.

    “With vaccine being available for age cohort of 12-18 years and below, the mentioned financial burden will further increase by around Rs 1,000 crore. It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resource pool of the state which is already stressed during Covid times,” the letter mentioned.

    He said the abysmal supply of vaccine as compared to the state’s requirement is the foremost impediment to the ongoing vaccination drive.

    Terming the mandate for states to procure medicines against cooperative federalism, Soren said, “This is probably for the first instance in the history of independent India that the states have been mandated to procure vaccines on their own.”

    Such a mandate, under the challenging and unprecedented circumstances where the entire nation is struggling for over a year, stands against the principle of cooperative federalism, he said.

    Soren said with the emergence of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, the state experienced an unexpected outbreak of the pandemic and existing medical infrastructure of the state was put under unparalleled strain.

    He mentioned that it is now well established that timely and full vaccination of all the eligible beneficiaries is the only sustainable measure against the spread of COVID-19 infection and to control mortality on account of it.

    “Better preparedness and response to a possible third wave in the near future will hinge on the extent of vaccination coverage across the country. The State of Jharkhand is taking all possible measures to ensure maximum coverage in the least possible time frame,” he said.

    Stating difficulties in procuring vaccines, the chief minister said as mandated by the central government, Jharkhand is putting all efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccine directly from the available manufacturers for the age cohort of 18 to 44 years.

    “However, the supplies against the orders placed continue to remain extremely limited and it ultimately depends on the allocations made by the central government. On account of scarce supplies, the overall pace of vaccination is not as desired and defeats the very purpose of vaccination drive for this age cohort,” he stressed.

    Further, Soren mentioned that Jharkhand like other states has always received vaccines free of cost from the central government for pulse polio and routine immunisation.

    Also, he said that rates specified by the central government for procurement of vaccines by the state for the age cohort of 18 to 44 years are significantly higher than the rates at which vaccine is being procured by the central government for the beneficiaries in the age cohort of 45 years and above.

    “This dichotomy will not stand the scrutiny of reasonable classification under the fundamental principles of the Constitution of India,” Soren who earlier hit out at PM Modi for “launching vaccination drive without preparedness” said.

    “Further, the inherent diversity in our country creates various peculiarities specific to the states concerned. Every State has its own high risk groups depending on the geographical, cultural and traditional heterogeneity. As such, a common framework defined by the Central Government with regard to prioritising of beneficiaries across the country is not desirable,” the letter mentioned.

    Urging the PM to provide to the State free vaccine for beneficiaries of all age groups and also give freedom to define priorities for vaccination coverage, Soren said this would help the state in achieving the target of full vaccination in a timely manner which would go a long way in ensuring effective tackling of the anticipated third wave.

    He said the State and the people of Jharkhand shall be ever grateful for support under such difficult times.

    Facing delay in vaccine supplies, Jharkhand which could not launch vaccination drive for 18-44 age group on May 1 ultimately launched a free drive on May 14 but has been stressing on constraints in supply.

    Hitting out at the Centre on vaccine distribution, the CM in an interview on Sunday had said a state like Jharkhand has almost exhausted doses for people in the 18-44 years age group.

    Accusing the Centre of “no transparency in vaccine allocation”, Soren said under the circumstance he was left with no other option than to appeal to the companies operating in the state to come forward for vaccination of communities in their areas.

    Jharkhand’s COVID-19 tally soared to 3,36,943 on Monday as 703 more people tested positive for the infection, while 19 fresh fatalities pushed the state’s coronavirus death toll to 4,977.

  • India crosses 5.5 crore COVID vaccination mark

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Union Health Ministry in its daily vaccination update on Friday said the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 5.5 crore with over 23 lakh inoculated in the last 24-hours.

    “A total of 5,55,04,440 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 80,34,547 HCWs (health care workers) who have taken the 1st dose and 51,04,398 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 85,99,981 frontline workers (FLWs) 1st dose, 33,98,570 FLWs (2nd dose), 2,47,67,172 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 55,99,772 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities,” according to the Health Ministry said on Friday.

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    Total 23,58,731 vaccine doses were given in the last 24-hours, which marks the 69th day of vaccination.

    Of these, 21,54,934 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 40,595 sessions for 1st dose and 2,03,797 HCWs and FLWs received 2nd dose of the vaccine.

    “Ten States account for nearly 70 per cent of the vaccine doses were given during the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.

    Meanwhile, India continues to witness a surge in new COVID-19 cases as 59,118 fresh infections and 257 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Friday.

    With fresh 32,987 recoveries, a total of 1,12,64,637 people have recovered from the diseases so far.

    The cumulative number of cases reached 1,18,46,652 including 4,21,066 active cases and 1,60,949 deaths.

    Five states, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat have reported a surge in daily new cases.