Arvind Panagariya feels India's daily Covid-19 vaccination rate is 'simply not good enough'

The current Covid-19 vaccination rate of India is “simply not good enough” and at least 20 lakh more people should be accommodated in the vaccination drive per day, according to former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya.

He further questioned whether the cause is vaccine hesitancy among people or insufficient production.

"India's current vaccination rate of 3 to 4 million (30-40 lakh) per day is simply not good enough. We need to up our game to achieve a daily rate of at least 5 to 6 million (50-60 lakh) jabs. Not clear whether the cause is hesitation or insufficient production," Arvind Panagariya tweeted on Sunday.

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As per the Union Health Ministry, 37,73,52,501 vaccine doses have been administered as of July 12 morning.

India administered a record number of 91.74 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses on June 21. In the last 24 hours, 12,35,287 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been given, out of which 7,86,479 were the first dose and 4,48,808 were the second dose.

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According to the Union Health Ministry, the Centre has provided more than 38.86 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses to the state and union territories and 63,84,230 doses are in the pipeline. It has also said that more than 1.54 crore unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are available with private and government hospitals of the states and union territories across the country.