A total of 2.24 lakh people received the COVID19 vaccine shot on the first two days of the countrywide vaccine run that was rolled out on Saturday. This accumulates to around 64% of the total 3,16,375 beneficiaries which were planned to get the vaccine, preliminary data from states, subject to further correction, compiled by the Centre till Sunday evening showed, according to a report by Times of India.
States like Delhi, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir reported a decent turnout with 54% whereas, other states such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Tripura and union territory Puducherry recorded low turnout of the beneficiaries in the range of 22-34%.
While commencing the Covid19 vaccine drive on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that this will be the largest inoculation exercise yet in the entire world.
“India has registered the highest day one vaccination number in the world — higher than the US, UK and France on day one,” additional health secretary Manohar Agnani was quoted as saying by TOI.
However, the data is tentative as many vaccination sites operated late till evening, while, some sites were having trouble with managing data on the online platform CoWin and hence were collecting the data manually.
Small states performed better as Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh had less than 10% absentees. Meanwhile, Telangana, Sikkim, Ladakh, Odisha, Lakshadweep and Haryana delivered over 80% registered beneficiaries.
Uttar Pradesh vaccinated the highest number of beneficiaries at 22,644, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. While UP registered 71% attendance, the other three were in the range of 60-65%.
The government has reportedly advised states to plan Covid-19 vaccination sessions four days a week to minimise disruption of routine health services.
