India Scales Up to 3 Million Vaccinations A Day, But 50% Frontline Workers Yet to Receive First Shot

India administered 30 lakh vaccine shots on Monday, scaling up to the highest vaccination on a single day, however 50 percent of the health and frontline workers are yet to receive the first Covid shot.

While 1.5 crore health and frontline workers have received the first dose, 61.68 lakh have also received the second dose, indicating that 50 percent of the estimated three crore frontline workers have been covered with the first dose so far, Times of India reported.

More than 30 lakh people were inoculated against COVID-19 on March 15, the highest in a day so far, taking the total number of vaccine doses administered in the country to 3,29,47,432, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. The vaccination of beneficiaries aged over 60 has touched 1 crore within 15 days, the ministry said.

The increase in the vaccination is largely given to people above 60 years of age accounting for nearly 33 percent of the total doses given till Tuesday evening. 21.43 lakh doses have also been given to those between 45 and 60 years of age with co-morbidities.

Experts say that there is an urgent need to ramp up coverage by relaxing age restrictions targeted vaccinations in high burden districts and increasing intervening period between two doses to attain maximum coverage.

“In view of large number of unvaccinated people, who are likely to become victims of a possible second surge, it is important to step up vaccination fast in the currently given categories and additionally open it up to all up to 30 years of age. Any possible shortage of vaccines could be made up by including more vaccines, increasing production and delaying the second dose of Covishield vaccine up to 8-12 weeks which has been suggested by the WHO,” said Anoop Misra, chairman, Fortis C-Doc.

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