Day 1 of free booster drive sees 16-fold jump; Bihar, Delhi, Haryana top 5 states to receive jab

On the first day of the Centre's 75-day effort to deliver free Covid-19 booster injections to persons aged 18 to 59, a 16-fold increase was noted, with 13.2 lakh doses provided to this age group across the nation.

Until Thursday, India has provided almost 78 lakh doses of the precautionary dosage to persons under the age of 60. Since it was made accessible to the age group on April 10, the average rate of precaution dosage was 81,000 per day in the country. Furthermore, fewer than 1% of the target population of 77.10 crore in the 18-59 age range had received the prophylactic dosage.

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However, when it was given free, the average daily dose increased from 81,000 to 13.2 lakh on Friday. Bihar, Delhi, and Haryana were the top five states in terms of booster dose immunisation in the 18-59 age range as of July 14. The third dosage has previously been declared free for this age group by the states.

Bihar alone accounted for 38% of the national total, with roughly 30 lakh doses provided, while Delhi and Haryana vaccinated over 10 lakh and 6 lakh doses, respectively, with the third dosage. Only people over the age of 60, as well as health care and frontline personnel, have received free prophylactic doses from the centre.

The Union Health Ministry lowered the time between the second and third doses from nine to six months, prompting the decision to administer free booster shots to all adults. Under "Amrit Mahotsav for COVID Vaccination", the government vaccination centres began giving out free prophylactic doses of the immunizations to anybody over the age of 18 on Friday.

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The initiative is part of the government's "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav," which aims to increase the adoption of precautionary dosages among the eligible population "to commemorate the country's 75th anniversary of independence In the country, the total number of Covid vaccine doses delivered has surpassed 199.69 crore.