New Delhi: As India achieved the historic milestone of administering more than one crore doses in a single day, health experts believe that with such large-scale vaccination, the country can inoculate its people above 18 years of age by December this year.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Dr. JA Jayalal, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said that the achievement shows the country's health infrastructure and human resources have developed. "The pandemic exposed the crisis in India's health infrastructure as well as manpower. But yesterday's record indicates that the situation has improved," said Dr Jayalal. His statement assumes significance as India witnessed an acute shortage of medical infrastructure and manpower during the second wave of the pandemic.
Read: PM Modi lauds 'Momentous feat' of record 1 crore vaccination doses in single day
Dr. Jayalal said that private hospitals have also been fully involved. "In fact, people have understood the importance of getting vaccinated. The 25 per cent quota of vaccines for the private hospitals has been very effectively utilised," said Dr. Jayalal.
The IMA president, however, emphasized that government must ensure the supply chain of vaccines. "With available vaccines, good infrastructure and available manpower, we can certainly achieve the goal of administering all people above 18 years of age by December this year," he said.
Read: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh top vaccination charts in 18 to 44 years age group
Health Ministry statistics, accessed by ETV Bharat, show that Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra are the top three States leading India's feat of record 1 crore vaccination doses in a single day. A total of 10,063,931 vaccine doses were administered across India on Friday with Uttar Pradesh leading the list of States with 2862649 doses, followed by Karnataka (1079588 doses) and Maharashtra (984117 doses). Big States like Andhra Pradesh administered 324577 doses, Bihar 498272, Gujarat 489492, Haryana 600,220, Kerala 484130, Odisha 267960, Rajasthan 459915, Tamil Nadu 373655, West Bengal 547015.
India has administered a total of 62.29 crore vaccine doses under the nationwide vaccination drive, so far.
