So far, the Government of India has provided more than 22 crore vaccine doses (22,00,59,880) to States/UTs and a total of 20,13,74,636 doses were used, including wastages, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As part of the countrywide immunization campaign, the Centre has been supplying free COVID vaccines to states and union territories, besides allowing States/UTs and private hospitals to buy and distribute them on their own.
Vaccination, along with Test, Track, Treat, and COVID Appropriate Behavior, is an important part of the Government of India's overall pandemic containment and management plan. As of May 1, 2021, the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has been implemented.
According to the Strategy, the government of India will acquire 50% of all Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) authorized vaccine doses from any producer every month. It would continue to provide these dosages to State Governments at no expense, as it had done previously.
More than 1.77 Cr COVID vaccine doses are still available for administration with the States/UTs. Another, 1 lakh vaccination doses are on their way to the States/UTs and will arrive in the next three days, said the Ministry.
India has reached a cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage of 2 crore people. In the 130 days since the start of the COVID-19 Vaccination Drive, India has reached this milestone. After the United States, India is the second country to reach this breakthrough. 42% of people over the age of 60 have received at least one dose of the COVID19 vaccine, said the Ministry.
On January 16, 2021, India launched the COVID-19 Vaccination Drive, the world's largest vaccination drive to date. Other leading countries in the COVID-19 vaccination drive include the United Kingdom, which reached 5.1 million in 168 days, Brazil, which reached 5.9 million in 128 days, and Germany, which reached 4.5 million in 149 days.
Currently, India is using three vaccines against COVID-19 in its vaccination campaign, including two made in India: Covishield from the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech, while the third is Russian-made Sputnik V.
