Saturday, 22 Mar, 2025
By: Anshul Vipat
Image source: IANS
The possibility of a spill-over effect in India has led to a sharp uptick in the vaccination intake in the country in the past week
There is almost a sense of déjà vu about the COVID script playing out in China. A little over three years ago, when the Wuhan virus first hit the headlines, there was just a passing interest in India till its impact hit home in a big way. This time around, there is less anxiety even while China has its back to the wall. Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US are also clocking enough daily COVID numbers to cause a fair degree of anxiety. Alarm bells have not begun ringing in India yet but given the catastrophic experience of the deadly Delta wave in 2021, the Centre is taking no chances now.
Amid this, the possibility of a spill-over effect in India has led to a sharp uptick in the vaccination intake in the country in the past week. On Friday (December 23) and Saturday, more than one lakh vaccinations were administered in India against an average of between 40,000 and 50,000 doses through most of this month.
According to data recorded by the CoWin portal, in the week spanning 11-17 December, the average number of Covid vaccine doses administered daily ranged between 45,000-57,000 per day — barring Sunday, 17 December, when it fell to about 6,565 doses. In the 18-25 December week, the number rose sharply, crossing one lakh doses daily for two days, 23 and 24 December. Till 3 PM Monday, 26 December, over 68,000 vaccine doses had already been administered.
The spurt coincided with the meetings called first by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on 21 December and then by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the following day, to review the country’s preparedness to handle Covid cases, in the wake of an upsurge in infections in countries like China. On 25 December, despite it being Christmas and a Sunday, the total doses administered stood at 25,937, according to CoWin data. The number is about three times that administered on 18 December.
With the last wave of infections having ended nearly nine months ago, interest in vaccination had been declining. Data shows that over 92 per cent of the population above the age of 12 years — the eligible group for vaccination in India – have been vaccinated with the primary two doses. In addition, there is a small proportion of people, across all age categories, which have received the first dose but not the second dose.
However, the uptake of booster doses is still quite low. Less than 22 per cent of the eligible population has so far received the booster, or precautionary, dose. This is mainly due to the lack of enthusiasm in the younger population groups amidst a significant decline in the perceived threat from Covid-19. Among the senior citizens — those above 60 years of age — the penetration of booster doses is a healthy 60 per cent.
Booster doses began to be given in January this year, first among the senior citizens, and by the middle of August over 50 per cent of the 60-plus age group had received these additional doses. In the first eight months of this year, nearly 28 lakh vaccine doses were getting administered every day on average. This number for the subsequent period is less than 6.5 lakh every day.
