India administered more than 25 million vaccines against COVID-19 in the last day, a record number that coincided with a special campaign to mark the 71st birthday of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I would like to thank all the doctors, medical personnel, the administration in the country. With its efforts, India yesterday achieved a record of vaccination of more than 25 million people in a single day, “said Modi on Saturday in a video.
In a message on Twitter, the president related this success to the commitment of the entire population: “This is the sense of duty that made it possible for 25 million vaccines to be administered” in a single day, he remarked.
The Ministry of Health reported today that this record number was reached on Friday, according to data provided by the Indian regions, a day in which “42,000 vaccines per minute, or 700 per second” were inoculated, as they had advanced.
Due to the magnitude of the campaign yesterday, the Indian authorities revealed that the exact final number of vaccinated on Friday will be available predictably late on Saturday.
According to official data, this country of 1.35 billion inhabitants has so far administered 794 million vaccines against covid-19 throughout the country since last January 16, when the national campaign began.
During the last weeks, India has registered one of its highest vaccination data, on several occasions with 10 million vaccines in a single day, however, Friday’s data far exceeds the average vaccination of the last two weeks.
Still, with an adult population of more than 950 million people, the Asian country is far from full immunization of the population. So far only 198.8 million people have received the full course of the anticovid vaccine.
The Modi government has set a goal to fully vaccinate 60% of the entire population, which would mean applying doses to an average of 10 million people per day until the end of the year.
The limited availability of vaccines has been a determining factor in the country’s vaccination plan, which despite being known as “the world’s pharmacy” and housing the largest vaccine factory, faced serious problems for months to supply its local demand.
The India campaign relies heavily on two locally manufactured formulas: AstraZeneca’s Covishield; and the indigenous Covaxin, from the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech. It also has other licensed vaccines, such as the Russian Sputnik.
According to the Indian Ministry of Health, the country has more than 60 million unused doses that are still available, a number that increases every day as manufacturers make new shipments.
According to state policy, 75% of vaccine production destined for India goes to the state and is administered free of charge throughout the country. Only 25% is destined for private clinics.
The momentum of the vaccination campaign occurs when the country is going through a phase of the pandemic with a relatively low number of infections, with 35,000 new cases during the last day, far from the more than 400,000 registered last May during the peak of the pandemic in India.
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