Coronavirus vaccination: India administers 53 lakh doses on Tuesday day after record high of 88 lakh

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India on Tuesday administered around 53 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines. This is a nearly 40 per cent drop from Monday’s record-breaking 88 lakh inoculations.

The Centre said Monday’s increase wasn’t a sudden development but the result of coordinated planning with states and improves supplies of vaccines. The government has said that increased vaccine production and states being given a better advance schedule of the supplies will push the numbers high.

"What happened on Monday was not sudden. It was a result of coordinated planning in which state governments and the Centre collaborated and worked very hard. Even what happened on Tuesday is part of that planning," said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

Uttar Pradesh remained the top performer by administering more than 7 lakh doses. Maharashtra provided 5.5 lakh shots to its people. Other states like Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, however, provided under 1 lakh shots.

In June, the average daily vaccination stood at 34.6 lakh shots a day.

The government said that is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding scope of the nationwide vaccination drive. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

During May 2021, more than 7.9 crore vaccines were available for the nationwide COVID19 vaccination exercise. These were ramped up to 11.78 crore in June. These include the free supply of vaccines to states and UTs from the Government of India, those directly procured by the states and UTs and those directly procured by the private hospitals, the ministry said.

According to the revised guidelines which came into effect from Monday, vaccine doses provided free of cost by the Centre will be allocated to states and UTs based on criteria such as population, disease burden and the progress of vaccination, and all above the age of 18 will be eligible for the free jabs. Any wastage of vaccine will affect the allocation negatively. The Centre will now procure 75 percent of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country. Domestic vaccine manufacturers are given the option to also provide vaccines directly to private hospitals. This would be restricted to 25 percent of their monthly production.

It had earlier allowed states and private hospitals to procure 50 percent of the vaccines following demands for decentralisation of the process. However, after several states complained of problems including funding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the revision of the vaccine guidelines.