Vaccine doses are supplied to the States/UTs as per advance allocation in various schedules throughout a month, and More than 516 million doses will be supplied from January 2021 to 31st July 2021.
The government of India has been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID19 pandemic. Vaccination forms an integral component of the five-point strategy of the Government of India to fight the pandemic, including Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.
There have been some recent media reports alleging that India will miss the end-July 2021 target of administering half a billion doses. The reports also mention that the Government had stated in May 2021 that it would make 516 million shots available by the end of July 2021. These reports are ill-informed and have misrepresented the facts.
The figures of 516 million vaccine doses might have been picked up from various sources that informed about the vaccine doses' likely availability from January 2021 to the end of July 2021. The facts are that a total of more than 516 million vaccine doses will indeed be supplied from Jan 2021 to 31st July 2021.
It is also pertinent to mention that Vaccine doses are supplied to the States/UTs as per advance allocation and advance information to them. Vaccines are supplied in various schedules throughout a month. Therefore, the availability of 516 million doses until the end of a particular month does not mean that every dose supplied until that month will be consumed/ administered. There would be supplies in the pipeline, which should be available for the next few days until the next supplies of vaccine doses materialize in a particular State/District/Sub District to keep vaccination going.
As of date, a cumulative total of 457 million doses have been supplied to the States/ UTs from January 2021 till date and an additional 60.3 million doses are expected to be supplied by 31st July. This will amount to a total of 517 million doses supplied from January 2021 to 31st July 2021.
It should be appreciated that India has crossed the landmark of 440 million (44.19 crores) doses administered, which is the largest number achieved in the world and has been done at quite a brisk pace too. Out of these, 9.60 crores are cases where both doses have been administered.
A total of 11.97 crore doses was administered in June 2021. Similarly, for the month of July 2021 (as of 26th July), a total of 10.62 crore doses have already been administered.
It is the endeavour of the Government to provide vaccination to eligible citizens in the shortest possible time as per the availability of the COVID vaccines.
Courtesy: PIB
