Covid vaccine: India surpasses US in jabs administered, but lags in percentage of population covered
India has inoculated less than 4% of its 140 crore population while the US has managed to fully vaccinate 46.62% of its residents.
India has surpassed the United States in terms of total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the respective countries, the health ministry said on Monday.
A total of 32.36 crore doses have been given in the country so far, according to the ministry. Meanwhile, 32.33 crore jabs have been administered in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.
India, however, lags far behind the US in terms of population percentage that has been inoculated. According to data on the government’s vaccination portal CoWin, more than 5.54 crore Indians have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Even as data on the CoWin portal is slightly dated, this amounts to less than 4% of the 140 crore population of India.
The US, on the other hand, has managed to fully vaccinate 46.62% of its population, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The Centre has repeatedly asserted that all adults in India will be fully vaccinated by the end of this year. However, according to information provided by the government itself, the supply of vaccines seems to be falling short.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court last week, the Centre said that 186.6 crore vaccine shots are needed to inoculate all citizens aged above 18 years. It also submitted that 135 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be available by December 2021.
However, this projection is quite less than the Centre’s earlier estimation of how many doses would be available. In May, the health ministry had said that India would have 216 crore doses of Covid-19 shots between August and December to vaccinate all adults. The difference in projection stands at 81 crore.
So far, India has approved the Covaxin shot developed by Bharat Biotech, Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Sputnik V, made by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute. In its affidavit to the court, the Centre said that vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Zydus Cadila and Biological E will be given approval in the near future. These two companies are together slated to provide 35 crore doses till December 2021.