Wide variation in coverage across states marks India’s vaccine drive
Delhi leads in administering doses to those in the 18-45 years age group with 17.3% of residents in the category having received a shot, while Chhattisgarh brings up the bottom of the list with only 3.7% those between 18 and 45 receiving jabs.
India’s vaccination drive has been open to adults across age groups for 40 days and several variations in coverage are clear across the country’s states, data analysed by HT shows. While Himachal Pradesh is the clear leader in terms of administering doses to the largest proportion of its adults (38%), states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu have not managed give a single shot to even 15% of those eligible for vaccines.
Delhi leads in administering doses to those in the 18-45 years age group with 17.3% of residents in the category having received a shot, while Chhattisgarh brings up the bottom of the list with only 3.7% those between 18 and 45 receiving jabs.
Tamil Nadu is not only among states that has covered less than 15% of its eligible population, its coverage of the 45+ years age group (20.4%) is the worst among all 23 regions for which population projections are available for 2021 from the National Commission on Population. Given the high social development indicators and the relatively good public health infrastructure in the state, the numbers may point to significant vaccine hesitancy.
Till 5pm on Wednesday, India administered 191.9 million first doses of Covid-19 vaccines across different age groups, according to data uploaded on the Co-WIN dashboard. Of these, 50.5 million doses went to people in the 18-45 age group, 79.2 million to those in the 45-60 age group, and 62.2 million to those above 60.