On Thursday, 21 October, India hit the milestone of having administered 1 billion or 100 crores COVID-19 vaccine doses, making it the second country in the world to do so, after China.
India reached the milestone in 278 days after the national vaccine drive first took flight on 16 January 2021.
The landmark was celebrated with song and dance in the country, reported Reuters.
These 278 days of the world's largest vaccination programme, however, have been fraught with set backs including low vaccine uptake propelled by vaccine hesitancy and shortage.
FIT takes you through the milestones that India's vaccine drive hit on the way to 1 billion.
The Landmark 1 Billion
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took to twitter to laud the achievement, saying "We are witnessing the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and collective spirit of 130 crore Indians."
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, responded to this with a tweet of his own congratulating India for this feat, saying, Congratulations, Prime Minister @narendramodi, the scientists, #healthworkers and people of #India, on your efforts to protect the vulnerable populations from #COVID19 and achieve #VaccinEquity targets.
So far over 70 crore people in India have received the first dose, and around 29 crore have received both doses.
In the last 24 hours, over 41,36,142 vaccines doses were administered, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Of the 100 crore vaccine doses administered, over 90 percent of people received Serum Institute of India's Covishield, also called the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Key Milestones: 0 To 1 Billion
India announced a national COVID-19 vaccine drive on 16 January, and that they would be kicking it off in a phased manner starting with the frontline workers.
In April, the vaccine drive saw a slow-down as a result of supply shortage, prompting the government to tighten exports of COVID vaccines in order to meet the domestic demand.
On 27 August, India managed to administer over 1 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the same day, the highest vaccine doses administered in a single day since the drive began.
Is India's Vaccination Drive on Track?
Despite hitting the 1 billion mark, India is falling short on meeting its vaccination goals.
In October 2020, the then health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan had announced that India expected to receive & utilise 400-500 million (40 to 50 crore) doses by July 2021—a missed mark.
According to experts, India will have to administer over 12 million doses a day to fully vaccinate all eligible adults by the end of 2021, reported BBC.
(Written with inputs from the BBC, and Reuters.)
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