With populated States like Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal reporting a high inoculation target shortfall of 65 per cent on an average and the country’s overall inoculation registering a shortfall of 54 per cent, vaccine-starved India has a long way to go before it can vaccinate its entire adult population by December-end as promised by the Government.
While Kerala and Delhi have a vaccination target shortfall of 22 per cent, Bihar falls short by 71 per cent, and Rajasthan and Bengal by 66 per cent. As per the data made available by the Union Health Ministry, the country’s total vaccination coverage has crossed 36 crore till date while 40 lakh doses were given on Sunday. The shortfall in a State is calculated as a percentage of its population.
Though Kerala and Delhi stand out as the States with the best vaccination record, they too are a long way from reaching the target of vaccinating all adults by December. Though the Government has announced that it would be procuring 216 crore vaccines between August and December, it has submitted in the Supreme Court that 135 crore doses will be available during the period. So far, the country has fully vaccinated only 7.1 crore people while 30 crore have got the single jab.
India’s adult population is roughly 94 crore, which means that the Government needs to administer 159.2 crore more doses by the end of this year.
