66% of 18+ population vaccinated with first COVID-19 dose: Health Ministry

Around 66 per cent of India’s adult population have received at least a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while over 23 per cent have been given both the shots, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhusan said in a media briefing on Thursday (September 23).

Bhusan said while Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim have given the first shot to their entire population aged above 18 years, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Kerala, Ladakh and Uttarakhand have given at least one shot to 90 per cent of their population.

Bhusan said 63.7 per cent of doses have been administered at vaccination centres in rural areas and 35.4 per cent in urban areas.

A total of 68.2 lakh doses (approximately 0.95 per cent) have been administered at COVID vaccination centres not tagged as rural or urban, he said.

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Besides, 99 per cent of healthcare workers have been administered at least one dose of the vaccine while 84 per cent have received both the jabs. Also, while all frontline workers have been given the first jab, 80 per cent have been administered both the jabs, Bhusan said.

The health secretary also announced that differently-abled people and those with restricted mobility will be given COVID vaccine doses at their homes.

Even though India has reported 31,000 new infections in the last 24 hours, Bhusan said the absolute numbers, however, have seen a slump.

Cautioning that the country is still in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic, Bhusan said around

62.73 per cent of total infections reported last week were from Kerala alone, the only state with over a lakh active COVID-19 cases.

The country’s weekly case positivity rate has also drastically fallen from 21.48 per cent (from April 29 to May 5) to 2.16 per cent (from September 16-22). This is the 12^th consecutive week which has seen the country logging less than a 3 per cent weekly positivity rate.

Bhusan also said that 33 districts in the country are now reporting over 10 per cent weekly positivity rate, while 23 are recording between 5-10 per cent, the officials said.

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Under COVID guidelines for the upcoming festival season, mass gatherings has to be avoided in containment zones and in districts with over 5 per cent positivity rate, they said.

On the UK rule of 10-day quarantine for those vaccinated in India, ministry officials said it was a discriminatory practice. Bhushan said both the countries are in dialogue on the matter.

“We believe that the dispensation that is proposed to be implemented from October 4 is a discriminatory practice. Both the sides are in dialogue and we believe a resolution will be found. We do reserve the right to reciprocate in a similar manner,” Bhushan said.