NEW DELHI: Covid-19 vaccination in India over the last two weeks have been remarkable for two reasons. Not only were 10 crore shots administered in this period. Over 76% of the total jabs were given in rural areas.
Over the past 12 days, there have been three days when daily vaccination figures crossed 1 crore, indicating that vaccine supplies were getting close to the huge demands of the states.
A look at the Union government’s CoWIN dashboard shows that between August 24 and September 6, nearly 10 crore inoculations were carried out, of which nearly 7.6 crore were in rural areas — where about 65% of the country’s 140 crore people live.
During these two weeks, average daily vaccinations were 71.30 lakh and more than 54 lakh of these may have been be in rural areas alone.
The numbers are particularly encouraging given that in May when vaccination opened for all adults, the share of rural vaccination was less than 40%.
The new trend is also significant because healthcare systems in villages are inadequate as was exposed during the peak of the second wave in the country.
The deadly surge of infections that overwhelmed hospitals in April-May had also ripped through rural parts and thousands are believed to have died of the infectious disease. A large number of these deaths were not even recorded, as per estimates.
Public health experts point out that the rise in vaccination figures in rural areas could also be an indication that vaccine hesitancy and misinformation in rural and non-urban areas might be ebbing.
According to vaccine policy expert Chandrakant Lahariya, as Covid-19 vaccination in urban areas has reached a certain level of saturation and more vaccines are available for states with very high rural populations, the vaccination figures are slated to go up.
“That is evident from the high daily vaccinations in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar over the last several days,” he said, adding that the vaccination strategy drawn in March-April seems to be finally working out.
For the country as a whole, total vaccination figures reached 70 crore on Tuesday and the Union health ministry said that while the first 10 crore doses were administered in 85 days, the next 10 crore took 45 days.
It, however, took less than 20 days for the journey between 50 crore and 60 crore inoculations and only 13 days for the next 10 crore vaccine doses.
