India crosses 1 billion COVID-19 vaccinations

India on Thursday (October 21) crossed a milestone administering over 1 billion COVID-19 vaccinations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to congratulate the health workers on achieving the feat.

India’s COVID-19 Vaccination drive, the world’s largest vaccination drive so far, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16th January 2021.

In Phase I of the vaccination drive, started 130 days ago on 16th January, the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) prioritized Health Care Workers, and Front Line Workers (both government & private sector). Phase II of the vaccination drive started from 1st March 202, focused on protecting the most vulnerable age groups. These prioritized age-groups included persons above 60 years of age and persons above 45 years with associated specified co-morbidities. This was further relaxed to all people above 45 years of age on 1st April 2021. In Phase III, ‘Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy’ was adopted on 1st May 2021. Under this strategy, everyone above 18 years of age are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

Recently, Subject Expert Committee on Covid-19 has granted emergency use approval to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children in the 2-18 years age group.

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