India’s next big daily Covid vaccination record – after 88.09 lakh on solstice and 1.03 crore on August 27 – is probably going to be set Friday, when leaders of the ruling BJP are urged to push the jabs and state officials told to double the daily rate to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 71st birthday,
Top officials now accept they’re aiming for a record on the Prime Minister’s birthday.
“He is our Prime Minister… on his birthday we’ll attempt to make a fresh daily vaccination record,” Dr Sujeet Singh, the Director of the National Centre for Disease Control, told NDTV.
The push for a brand new daily record on the Prime Minister’s birthday comes amid intense scrutiny of vaccination numbers, and with the main focus on an ever-growing target – currently around 1.2 crore doses per day – to inoculate a minimum of 60 per cent of the population by December-end.
While an oversized a part of efforts to spice up numbers for the day will likely come from BJP-ruled states (or those ruled by its NDA allies), the concern is that the larger states – which must deliver big numbers to make sure a record is ready – are going slow on vaccines within the build-up to Friday.
Back in June – when Madhya Pradesh set a national record by administering nearly 17 lakh vaccines in an exceedingly day – the day before those numbers only 4,098 people were jabbed.
Fast-forward to today and, across India, vaccinations have fallen by over 15 per cent – from over 80 lakh average daily doses a fortnight ago to around 69 lakh as of Tuesday.
In state – where but seven per cent of the population is fully vaccinated – government sources say the aim is to “significantly better its single-day record” of 35 lakh doses set last week.
To reach that concentrate on, camps are planned for Ballia within the eastern a part of the state, where but two lakh people are vaccinated. Ballia’s population is around 30 lakh.
“We will have a special campaign in situ for day… there’ll be 192 vaccination centres on the day and targets are fixed soon,” Dr SK Tiwari, the district’s Acting Chief medical practitioner, said.
In central UP’s Kannauj, officials say the Friday target is 26,000 doses – double the district’s daily numbers. As of 5 pm Wednesday, fewer than 2,100 doses got 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 are administered.
In Bihar, fewer than 87,000 doses were administered till 5 pm, consistent with the CoWin dashboard.
For the week ending September 10 Bihar gave over 48.1 lakh doses. For the week starting Sept. 11 (which ends Friday, with the PM’s birthday), fewer than 25 lakh doses are given up to now.
Like Dr Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also acknowledged a “huge vaccination drive” are going to be dispensed on Friday and said, “we have gotten ready for that”.
“It is that the Prime Minister’s birthday on the 17th… on it day we’ll perform an enormous vaccination drive across Bihar. We have gotten ready for that,” Mr Kumar said yesterday.
Dips in Bihar and UP are mirrored in other states – including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat.
Gujarat administered over 36 lakh doses between September 4 and 10, but has given out fewer than 11 lakh from Sept. 11 to today.
Ultimately, record vaccination numbers are good, even critical, if a rustic of over 130 crore people is to be fully protected against the coronavirus.
But this can need a sustained and daily concentrate on vaccine delivery instead of one-day records.
Focus on vaccination also comes as top governance still warn of a 3rd wave of infections from existing variants of the virus, yet as further possible mutations.Concerns have also been expressed over the forthcoming festival season and possible disregard for Covid safety rules, which triggered a wave of infections now last year.
