NEW DELHI: India crossed a significant landmark in its Covid vaccination drive by administering 90.4 crore doses till Saturday evening. More than 72 lakh doses were administered till 9-30pm on Saturday, with Bihar taking the lead by pushing 26.4 lakh jabs in a single day. Maharashtra, which inoculated the second-highest number of people, trailed Bihar with a count of 7.5 lakh doses.
India’s average daily vaccinations has increased substantially in September to just over 79 lakh doses/day (up from 59.2 lakh/day in August), as more than one crore doses were administered on four separate days including 2.5 crore on September 17. The daily average, however, dropped slightly last week (September 25-October 1) to 68.84 lakh doses/day from 76.14 lakh doses/day in the September 18-24 week.
The first-dose coverage of the country’s adult population has also increased significantly to around 70% of the estimated 94 crore people aged 18 and above. So far, 26% of the adult population has received both doses.
While more than 5.3 crore doses of unutilised anti-Covid jabs were available with the states and UTs till Saturday morning, officials are expecting supplies to improve further over the next few weeks as Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D vaccine is expected to be rolled out soon.