India vaccinates nearly 25% of target population with two Covid-19 vaccine doses

India has fully vaccinated nearly 25 per cent of the estimated adult population, eight months after it kickstarted its nationwide vaccination drive.

The nation administered more than 54 lakh vaccine doses on Tuesday, taking the cumulative number to 87.66 crore. With Tuesday’s vaccinations, nearly 68 per cent of the target adult population of 95 crore has received their first dose and 24.44 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Several studies have shown that people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus after receiving one or two Covid-19 vaccine doses have significantly lower chance of severe disease or hospitalisation than unvaccinated individuals. According to a large-scale study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the odds of experiencing long Covid -- illness lasting 28 days or more after a positive test -- were reduced to half for people who received two vaccines doses.

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In the vaccination race, Uttar Pradesh is leading by administering over 10 crore vaccine doses so far. It is followed by Maharashtra, which has administered over 8 lakh vaccine doses. Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are in the third and the fourth spot respectively, as both the states have administered over 6 lakh vaccine doses.

As India nears this milestone, it has been witnessing a decline in a spike in Covid-19 cases with experts saying that the pandemic may now be settling down as an endemic. One of India’s foremost virologists, T Jacob John, believes that a third wave is quite unlikely unless a super-transmissible variant, far more transmissible than Delta turns up.

India reported a spike of less than 20,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. With 18,870 fresh coronavirus infections, the country's Covid-19 tally rose to 3,37,16,451, according to Union Health Ministry data. The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 4,47,751 with 378 more fatalities in the past 24 hours, data updated at 8 am showed.

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