TV
New Delhi: India is the fastest country to reach the one million vaccination mark, the government said on Thursday, while also commending 11 states and Union Territories for the speed of their coverage.
More than 25 lakh (2.5 million) people, including healthcare workers, have been vaccinated in the last 13 days, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, noting that India crossed one million mark in merely six days, the fastest amongst all the countries.
The US had crossed the crucial milestone in 10 days, followed by Spain in 12 days, Israel in 14 days, the UK in 18 days, Italy in 19 days, Germany in 20 days, and the UAE in 27 days.
Bhushan said that 11 states have performed better in vaccination coverage of the healthcare workers and have covered more than 30 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries.
This includes Lakshadweep, which has covered 83.4 percent of the targeted beneficiaries, followed by Odisha (50.7 per cent), Haryana (50 per cent), and Andaman and Nicobar (48.3 per cent). "This is a commendable achievement," he said.
Besides this, the Ministry pulled up six states who need to improve and speed up their vaccination drive. This includes Jharkhand which has only covered 14.7 per cent of the target and Delhi (15.7 per cent).
Further, Bhusan stated that over 25 lakh vaccine doses have been administered so far, as per data available till 2 pm today. Meanwhile, the number of active cases are declining. There are 1,75,000 active cases in the country as of now. A steady and declining trend is being exhibited.
However, two states still have 40,000 or more active cases - Kerala with 72,000 active cases and Maharashtra with 44,000 active cases.
ICMR DG Balram Bhargava, stressing on the new COVID variant said, "The UK variant strain is now present in 70 countries and we've identified 164 cases of it in India. We were able to find the first case of the UK variant on 22nd-23rd Dec. In a week's time, we were able to collect blood from these patients & culture the strain."
The nationwide vaccination drive had started on January 16 with the help of two vaccines -- Covaxin and Covishield. Initially, the government aims to vaccinate one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers.
(With IANS Inputs)
