New Delhi, Aug 26 : With more than 211 million Covid vaccination doses given, India crossed a significant milestone in the countrywide vaccination program on Friday.Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya hailed it as “Collective will of the nation under the steadfast and progressive direction of PM Narendra Modi, evident by Jan Bhagidari”.
The Centre had launched the COVID vaccine Amrit Mahotsav campaign on the 15th of July this year to provide an opportunity to promote “Precaution Dose in the context of the nation-wide Covid vaccination campaign.
Under the campaign, no-cost precautionary doses at all federal COVID vaccination centers for those who are 18 and over for a period of 75 days, starting July 15 through September 30 are being offered.
“Vaccination is a powerful method to combat Covid-19.The Cabinet’s decision today will increase the coverage of vaccination in India and help create an improved health for the nation,” Modi said in a tweet shortly after the campaign launched.
As the campaign approaches the on its 42nd day (Friday) an amount of 14.7 crore doses of precaution have been administered to date.
This also includes another 9.6 crore doses of precautionary medication that were administered during the campaign.
Additionally the average daily dose given has been increased by 27.77 lakh doses per day , up from 11.4 million doses per day (of 15 days) prior to the start of the campaign.
The daily dose for precaution doses has exceeded 22.7 lakh doses per day.
In a further significant step, with the recommendation of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation -NTAGI, Corbevax has been added to the list of vaccines.NTAGI, Corbevax has been included as a heterologous pre-caution dose in the National Covid-19 Vaccination program and can be administered following the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield.
As part of the campaign, more than 8,86,585 vaccination camps have been organized in the past by all states and the UTs.
It includes camps at railway stations (4,052) buses stations (8,776) airports (367), colleges and schools (1,11,700) in the way to places of worship (4,654) as well as camps in other locations (7,57,036).
Special vaccination clinics have been arranged in the areas of Char Dham Yatra (Uttarakhand), Amarnath Yatra (Jammu and Kashmir), Kanwar Yatra (all states/UTs of north India) as in major melas and congregations, according to the Health Ministry.
avr/pgh
