India becomes the 2nd country to cross the 200 million vaccination mark

New Delhi: – Indian requirement of vaccine doses is enormous, given the large population. Complaints are being made that the speed of vaccination is slow as the manufacturing capacity is less. Despite this, the vaccination rate is much higher than in other countries, and the figures prove it. India became the first country, after the United States, to complete more than 200 million vaccinations within just 130 days. The United Kingdom took 168 days to achieve 51 million vaccinations. India has done it in a much shorter time, nearly four times faster.

On Wednesday, India crossed the 200 million mark in vaccination. To date, 200 million 662 thousand and 456 Indian citizens have received the doses of vaccination. The union health department informed that out of these, 43 million 512 thousand and 863 citizens have completed two vaccine doses. Whereas 157 million 149 thousand and 593 have received only one dose.

The health ministry pointed out that 34% of the 45+ year category has received at least the first dose of vaccine, and in the 60+ year category, the proportion is 42%. Vaccination started in the country on 13th January 2021. In the first phase, only doctors, health workers and frontline workers were vaccinated. After that, vaccination of 60+ year was started in March.

Currently, the vaccination is being carried out with only two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxine, and Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are increasing their manufacturing capacities. More than 150 million doses of the vaccines will be available per month from June. Other companies will also start manufacturing the vaccines. A few days ago, the health ministry said that 2 billion doses of the vaccines would be available by the end of December, sufficient to vaccinate the entire population.

Meanwhile, the United States took 124 days to administer 200 million doses. In contrast, India is the only country to achieve that mark at nearly the same time. The United Kingdom took 163 days for 51 million vaccinations, Brazil took 128 days for 59 million and Germany took 149 days for 45 million vaccinations.