The Economic Survey, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday, says as on 6 January, India has been able to administer more than 220 crore Covid vaccine doses across the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tables the Economic Survey 2022-23 in Parliament [photo: ani]
Elaborating on the success story of India’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme, the Economic Survey, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday, says that as on 6 January, India has been able to administer more than 220 crore Covid vaccine doses across the country.
Nearly 97 per cent of eligible beneficiaries have already received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and around 90 per cent of eligible beneficiaries have received both doses.
Vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on 16 March 2022, followed by the precautionary dose for the age group 18-59 years starting on 10 April 2022. Also, 22.4 crore precautionary doses have been administered, added the survey.
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The survey says the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines entailed many challenges such as research and development for new vaccines, training of more than 2.6 lakh vaccinators and 4.8 lakh other vaccination team members, optimum utilisation of available vaccines, difficult-to-reach population, and the need to ensure all essential health services along with scaling up of vaccination programme.
In addition, logistical challenges such as storage and decentralised distribution of vaccines across 29,000 cold chain points, augmenting cold chain capacity, and developing an IT platform for registering the beneficiaries and vaccine service delivery, were also noticed. The programme was able to overcome these challenges and meet its goals within a short time frame.
The survey highlighted that the present administration of more than 220 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses was made possible because of the robust digital infrastructure of Co-WIN. It was this broad interlock of digital framework and the government’s vigour of continuously improving its outreach for better inclusion that India could register a quick and durable economic recovery while continuing to secure both lives and livelihoods.
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