Coronavirus vaccination in India: The country witnessed the administration of a whopping 1.25 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses on August 31, i.e. Tuesday, which is the highest single-day tally in the country for this vaccination drive that began mid-January. This led to India recording the administration of a total of 18.12 crore vaccine doses in August, an increase of close to 5 crore doses as compared to July’s 13.45 crore doses, according to a report in IE. As per the data of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country has cumulatively administered over 65 crore doses of the coronavirus vaccines.
In fact, on Tuesday, India also crossed an important milestone of collectively administering more than 50 crore first doses.
However, that is not where things end. The vaccination drive seems to be in full swing, as August witnessed the average daily administration of 58.46 lakh doses, which marked the first month since January that the daily average crossed the 50-lakh mark. Notably, back in April, the daily average doses administered was 29.96 crore, which dropped down in May to 19.69 lakh. This was due to production issues that caused a subsequent shortage of vaccine supply to states. With June and July came a ramped up production effort on the part of manufacturers, as a result of which June saw an average of 39.89 lakh doses being administered while this figure went up to 43.41 lakh shorts in July.
Apart from this, in August, it was Uttar Pradesh where the maximum number of coronavirus vaccine doses were administered – 2.46 crore. Moreover, apart from UP, there were seven other states across the country which recorded the administration of more than 1 crore doses during the month – Maharashtra with 1.43 crore doses, MP with 1.42 crore doses, Bihar with 1.30 crore doses, Gujarat with 1.26 crore doses, Rajasthan with 1.19 crore doses, Karnataka with 1.17 crore doses, and lastly, West Bengal with 1.12 crore doses.
