India’s one-day immunization record is around 1.03 crore – established in August (File)
New Delhi:
India’s next big daily Covid vaccination record – after 88.09 lakh on June 21 and 1.03 crore on August 27 – is expected to be set on Friday, when ruling BJP leaders were asked to promote jabs and state officials have been urged to double the daily rate to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 71st birthday,
Senior officials now accept that they are aiming for a record on the Prime Minister’s birthday.
“This is our Prime Minister (…) on his birthday, we will try to draw up a new daily vaccination record,” Dr Sujeet Singh, director of the National Center for Disease Control, told NDTV.
The push for a new daily record on the Prime Minister’s birthday comes amid careful scrutiny of vaccination figures, and with the focus on an ever-increasing target – currently around 1.2 crore in doses per day – to inoculate at least 60 percent of the population by the end of December.
While much of the effort to boost the day’s numbers will likely come from states led by the BJP (or those led by its NDA allies), the concern is that the larger states – which need to provide big numbers to ensure a record is set – are slowing down on vaccines in preparation for Friday.
India plans to vaccinate around 60% of its population by the end of the year
In June – when Madhya Pradesh set a national record by administering nearly 17 lakh vaccines in one day – the day before those figures, only 4,098 people were injected.
Fast forward to today and across India vaccinations have fallen by more than 15% – from over 80 lakh in average daily doses a fortnight ago to around 69 lakh on Tuesday.
In Uttar Pradesh – where less than seven percent of the population is fully vaccinated – government sources say the goal is to “dramatically improve its single-day record” of 35 lakh doses set last week .
To achieve this goal, camps are planned in Ballia, in the eastern part of the state, where less than two lakhs of people have been vaccinated. The population of Ballia is around 30 lakh.
“We will have a special campaign in place for September 17th (…) there will be 192 vaccination centers on that day and targets will be set soon,” said Dr SK Tiwari, Acting District Chief Medical Officer. .
In Kannauj, in central UP, officials say Friday’s target is 26,000 doses, double the district’s daily figures. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, less than 2,100 doses had been administered in Kannauj.
For the week ending September 10, UP administered over 92.5 lakh doses.
For the week ending September 17, so far only 34.75 lakh doses have been administered.
Weekly vaccine trends for Bihar
In Bihar, less than 87,000 doses were given until 5 p.m., according to the CoWin dashboard.
For the week ending September 10, Bihar gave over 48.1 lakh doses. For the week starting September 11 (which ends Friday, with the Prime Minister’s birthday), less than 25 lakh doses have been administered so far.
Like Dr Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also acknowledged that a “huge vaccination campaign” would be carried out on Friday and said “we are preparing for it”.
“It is the Prime Minister’s birthday on the 17th (…) on that day, we will carry out a huge vaccination campaign across Bihar. We are preparing for it,” Kumar said yesterday.
Weekly vaccination trends for UP
Troughs in Bihar and UP are reflected in other states including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat.
Gujarat administered more than 36 lakh doses between September 4 and 10, but has distributed less than 11 lakh from September 11 to today.
Ultimately, the record vaccination figures are good, if not critical, if a country with a population of over 130 crore is to be fully protected against the coronavirus.
But that will require a sustained, daily focus on vaccine delivery rather than day-long recordings.
The focus is also on vaccination as senior government officials continue to warn of a third wave of infections from existing variants of the virus, as well as other possible mutations.
Concerns were also expressed about the upcoming festival season and a possible breach of Covid safety rules, which sparked a wave of infections around the same time last year.
