India completed two years of its vaccination drive today, January 16. Over 220.16 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the two years since its launch. With its recent launch of iNCOVACC, its first nasal vaccine, India has been making strides in its battle against COVID-19.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya took to Twitter to congratulate people on the country's achievement of having the "world's largest and most successful vaccination drive." He saluted the efforts of doctors and other healthcare workers on the front line who made this achievement possible.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's website, total vaccinations are at 2,20,17,06,017 as of 8 am on January 16, 2023. Over 3,900 of these were administered in the past 24 hours.
By this time last year, India had administered 156.76 crore doses. Since January 16, 2022, the government has administered 63.4 crore doses, around 40.44 percent of what it did in the first year.
The drive was rolled out on January 16, 2021, with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2, 2021. The next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1, 2021, for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specific comorbid conditions.
Vaccination of all Indians aged over 45 began from April 1, 2021. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the inoculation drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1, 2021.
The country set a record on September 17, 2021 when it administered 2.5 crore doses.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from January 3, 2022, for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.
The government approved booster doses for everyone over the age of 18 on April 10, 2022.
It crossed the landmark of 200 crore doses as a part of the nationwide vaccination drive on July 17, 2022.
"Proud of those who contributed to making India's vaccination drive unparalleled in scale and speed," Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted then.
The ministry reported 2,119 active cases and a grand total of 4,41,48,309 as of 8 am, January 16.
Also read: COVID-19 vaccines effective against Omicron sub-variant BF.7, says Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya
According to a vaccine tracker developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research, more than 95.86 percent of India's adult population had taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi joined in on the celebrations and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leading India's fight against the "menace of this pandemic." Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also lauded the milestone which he said marks "India's exemplary resilience."
With agency inputs.
