India COVID vaccinations near record, new cases at five-month low
India administers nearly 9 million vaccine doses in a day as new infections drop to the lowest since March 16.
India has administered more than 8.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data shows, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.
The surge in inoculations came alongside a sharp decline in daily new infections that fell to 25,166, the lowest since March 16, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
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India has undertaken one of the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554 million doses, giving at least one dose to about 46 percent of its estimated 944 million adults.
After hitting a record high of 9.2 million doses on June 21, the pace of daily inoculations had dropped to an average of about 4.2 million a day in July, according to data compiled from the government’s CoWIN website.
In the first two weeks of August, India administered about 5 million doses a day.
“For each day we fall short of it, the required target goes further up,” Rijo John, health economist and a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.
“Realistically, I do not think we will be able to cover all adults fully by this year’s end.”
India’s overall COVID-19 caseload on Tuesday reached 32.25 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States.
The country reported 437 deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 432,079.