The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday said India has the highest number of under-vaccinated or unvaccinated children worldwide at 3.5 million, an increase of 1.4 million from 2019, amid the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. It also noted that over three million of “zero-dose children” in 2020 lived in India.
At nearly 4.4 million, South Asia recorded the highest number of children having failed to receive any routine vaccination in the past 10 years, in 2020. “More than three million of these ‘zero-dose children’ in 2020 lived in India,” the UNICEF said in a statement.
Globally, the UNICEF said the data shows that just 10 countries account for 62 per cent of all under or unvaccinated children globally. “India — particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic — had the highest number of unprotected children worldwide at 3.5 million, an increase of 1.4 million compared with 2019, when the number of unprotected children was 2.1 million,” the children’s body said.
