India’s nationwide COVID-19 vaccination has crossed 2.56 crores coverage, the union health ministry informed on Thursday evening.
“A total of 2,56,90,545 vaccine doses were administered in the country, as per the provisional report till 1 pm on Thursday.”
Health Secretary of India, Rajesh Bhushan informed during the weekly press conference of the ministry.
“Acceleration in vaccination has been achieved with the active collaboration of private facilities. 71 per cent of the total number of doses are administered in public health facilities and almost 29 per cent has been contributed by private facilities,” Bhushan said.
AEFI (Adverse event following immunisation) reported so far are 0.020 per cent of the total immunisation done.
Bhushan further said, “Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Bengaluru urban, Ernakulam, Amravati, Jalgaon, Nasik and Aurangabad districts have the highest number of active cases.”
However on other side, Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine roll out is hitting roadblocks because of supply issues. Health secretary Brendan Murphy told a Senate committee that 125,000 people, including 30,000 in aged care, had been vaccinated since the rollout began in the last week of February, leaving the government likely to fall short of the target.
The Australian government wanted to vaccinate 4 million Australians by April and the entire country by October which is very unlikly as per government statement in Senate committe.
The Commonwealth Government has allocated over $6 billion to support the vaccine rollout with contracts for over 150 million COVID-19 vaccines, through a diverse vaccine portfolio. Since the last meeting of the National Cabinet, the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine commenced on 22 February 2020, with the first vaccinations of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine starting today in South Australia. Onshore supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine is on track to commence during the week commencing 22 March 2021.
India reported 22,854 new COVID-19 cases, 18,100 recoveries, and 126 deaths in the last 24 hours. The cumulative cases in the country reached 1,12,85,561 including 1,89,226 active cases and 1,09,38,146 recoveries.
The death toll due to COVID-19 has mounted to 1,58,189, the health ministry said on Thursday morning.
