• Thursday, March 28, 2024

Coronavirus

India gives billionth vaccine jab: ‘Triumph of Indian science’

A health worker inoculates a man with a Covid vaccine dose in New Delhi on Thursday, October 21, 2021. India administered its billionth Covid-19 vaccine dose on the day, according to the health ministry. (Photo by PRAKASH SINGH/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIA on Thursday (21) reached the milestone of administering its one billionth Covid-19 vaccine dose. Prime minister Narendra Modi hailed the feat as a “triumph of Indian science” but authorities still remain cautious about a new pandemic wave.

India was devastated by the second wave earlier this year in which more than a million people lost lives and the country’s health system came under serious pressure.
It has been an impressive turnaround since then and currently, about three-fourths of adults in the country of 1.3 billion people have a minimum of one shot while 30 per cent have been fully jabbed, government data showed.

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However, hundreds of millions of Indians aged below 18, who constitute about 40 per cent of the population, have not received a single shot since the jab for minors is yet to be implemented.

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Cases in India have sharply gone down during this period with the daily infection numbers have plummeted below 20,000 and much social activity has resumed.
Mumbai, the financial capital of India and one of its worst-hit cities, recently reported zero deaths from Covid in a day – something it achieved for the first time.
Modi also celebrated the day of the landmark by paying tributes to India’s health workers. Monuments in New Delhi, the national capital, were also lit up in national colours.

India’s health minister Mansukh Mandaviya was also elated over the achievement. In a tweet in Hindi, he said, “It would have been impossible to cross the 100 crore immunization mark without health workers. Today the Prime Minister went to RML Hospital and thanked the health workers. I sincerely thank the Prime Minister for his encouragement.”

 

India’s neighbours like Bhutan and Sri Lanka have also praised India’s milestone while Yasmin Ali Haque, the United Nations Children’s Fund representative in India, called it a “tremendous achievement”, AFP reported.

“As Indian families recover from the recent devastating Covid-19 wave, for many this milestone means hope,” Haque added.

India’s billion jabs were administered in 279 days despite shortages, which forced the country, the world’s biggest vaccine-producer, to halt exports for many months to meet the demand at home.

Only China, which claims it has given out more than 2.3 billion shots, has administered more doses than its southern neighbour.

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