India administers over 80 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses, highest single-day jabs in world

New Delhi [India], June 21 (ANI): India on Monday administered more than 80 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses. This is the highest single-day number of jabs in the world. Thus India has vaccinated roughly the population of Israel or twice the population of New Zealand in a single day.

"Today’s record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight COVID-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!" tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion.

The centralised vaccination policy, under which the Centre will procure 75 per cent of vaccines produced for distribution,  started today.  It coincided with International Yoga Day.   The Prime Minister had announced the new policy earlier this month.

This has been driven by the efficient model of centralised model of vaccination along with ground-level efforts by state governments.

NDA ruled states performed outstandingly in ramping up vaccination numbers, accounting for around 70 per cent of all vaccinations done on Monday.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had strived to achieve a big target today, which the state did by vaccinating around 15 lakh people.

Similarly, Karnataka vaccinated more than 10 lakh people. UP, Gujarat, Haryana were other leaders who vaccinated around 5 lakh people each.

A stark contrast was visible with the lacklustre performance of opposition-ruled states.

Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi on the other hand were not able to cross even 1 lakh vaccinations.

Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Delhi each have been given indicated availability of around 8 lakh vaccines till the end of this month.

Chattisgarh has been indicated the availability of around 3.5 lakh vaccines till the end of this month.

Maharashtra also vaccinated around 3.6 lakh people, which is below par given its population and despite the availability of more than 33 lakh vaccines till the end of this month.

The centralised free vaccination policy began today under which the government will provide free COVID-19 vaccine to all Indian citizens above 18 years of age.

Under the drive, the Centre would procure 75 per cent of vaccines and give them to states for free distribution to all citizens above the age of 18. It will also handle the 25 per cent vaccination that was with states till now under the liberalised plan announced earlier.(ANI)