The Centre Organises A Series Of Events To Mark The Remarkable Journey Of 1 Billion Doses Of The COVID- 19 Vaccine

On 21st October 2021, India crossed its 1 billion doses of COVID- 19 vaccine. As part of the Center’s celebration of 1 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, a series of events will be held. Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union health minister, will release a song to commemorate the occasion, while the country’s largest Khadi flag will be displayed at the historic Red Fort.

Covid-19 vaccine doses reached 1 billion in India on Thursday. Just over nine months have passed since the nationwide immunization campaign began on January 16, 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah praised the collective spirit of the 130-crore Indians who were able to pull off the incredible feat, expressing their gratitude to all the medical and health professionals and citizens who made it possible.

As per government data, about 75 per cent of all adults have received the first dose, while 31 per cent have received both doses. According to the report, the most vaccine doses were administered in Uttar Pradesh (above 12 crores), followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Gujarat.

A state-by-state breakdown of vaccination coverage can be found on the MyGov website. Below is a list of the states with their respective vaccination coverage:

Uttar Pradesh	12,08,84,032
Maharashtra	9,23,34,244
West Bengal	6,82,34,821
Gujarat	6,73,60,662
Madhya Pradesh	6,67,91,915
Bihar	6,30,50,262
Karnataka	6,13,46,876
Rajasthan	6,07,81,180
Tamil Nadu	5,34,97,377
Andhra Pradesh	4,77,28,693

In just over nine months since the vaccination drive began, the Indian government completed the administration of 100 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine on October 21, 2021. The experience of dealing with Covid-19 has been immense, especially when we look back at where things stood in early 2020. This was the first time humanity was dealing with a pandemic after 100 years and no one knew much about the virus. We remember how unpredictable the situation was back then, as we faced an unknown and invisible enemy that changed dramatically.

The journey from anxiety to assurance has taken place and our nation has become stronger because of the world’s largest vaccination drive.

This has truly been a bhagirath effort, involving members of a variety of social groups. Think about how long it would take a healthcare worker to complete vaccination in just two minutes. To reach this milestone, it would take approximately 41 lakh man-days or approximately 11,000 man-years of work.

For any effort to achieve and sustain speed and scale, the trust of all stakeholders is essential. One of the reasons for the success of the campaign was the trust that people developed in both the vaccine and the procedure, despite various efforts to create panic and mistrust.

There are some among us who will only purchase foreign brands, even for everyday necessities. The people of India, however, unanimously favoured the “Made in India” vaccines when it came to something as crucial as the Covid-19 vaccine. This represents an important paradigm shift.

Vaccine drive is an example of what can be achieved in India when citizens and the government team up with a common goal in the spirit of Jan Bhagidari. In the early days of India’s vaccination programme, many questioned whether 130 crore Indians were capable of vaccinating themselves.

Some suggested that it would take three to four years for India to reach its vaccination targets. Other people further asserted that people wouldn’t get vaccinated. Several people predicted that there would be much confusion and mismanagement during the vaccination process. They even claimed that the Indian government would be unable to manage supply chains.

Just as when the Janata Curfew and subsequent lockdowns were implemented, though, the Indian people proved that if they are made a part of the process, the results can be spectacular.

It is possible to do anything impossible when everyone takes ownership. As our healthcare workers vaccinated people across difficult geographic conditions, they crossed hills and rivers. In India, the youth, social workers, professional nurses, religious leaders, and healthcare workers all deserve credit for the fact that vaccine hesitancy is low when compared to even developed countries.

There was high pressure to give them preferential treatment when it came to vaccinations from various interest groups. The government has ensured that the vaccination drive will not feature a VIP culture, as it does with other government schemes.

As early as 2020, when Covid-19 was spreading across the world, it was clear to us that vaccines would have to be used to combat this pandemic. Thus, we prepared early for the pandemic. As early as April 2020, we formed expert groups and set about preparing a roadmap.

There are only a few countries in the world that have developed their vaccines. There are more than 180 countries that are dependent on a small number of vaccine producers, while dozens of nations are still waiting for vaccines to be supplied, even though India has supplied more than 100 crore doses of vaccine. Imagine how the situation would be if India did not possess its vaccine.

In what ways would India have obtained enough vaccines for such a large population, and how long would this have taken? Here, Indian scientists and entrepreneurs deserve a lot of credit for stepping up to the challenge. In terms of vaccines, India is truly aatmanirbhar due to their talent and hard work. The vaccine manufacturers in our country have shown that they are among the best in the world by scaling up in response to such overwhelming demand.

We live in a nation where, typically, the government had been known for impeding forward movement, but our government has instead accelerated and enabled the progress of the nation. From the start, the government offered support and assistance to vaccine makers in the form of institutional assistance, scientific research, funding, as well as accelerated regulatory processes. Our “whole of government” approach resulted in all departments of the government working together to facilitate vaccine makers and remove any bottlenecks.

India is a country of unprecedented size, where merely producing is not enough. Efforts should be focused on ensuring seamless logistics and last-mile delivery. The challenges are best understood if you can imagine the journey taken by a single vial of the vaccine.

As soon as the vial leaves the Pune or Hyderabad plant, it is sent to a hub in any one of the states. From there, it is transported to the district hub. Once there, it is transported to the vaccination centre. Many trips are made by plane and train during this process. During the entire journey, the temperature must be kept within an established range that is carefully monitored. This was accomplished by using over 1 lakh pieces of cold-chain equipment.

It was decided that states would be notified in advance of the delivery schedule of vaccines so they could plan their drives better and the vaccines would reach them on the days decided in advance. Independent India has never undertaken such a large-scale national vaccination campaign.

Throughout these efforts, a robust software platform called CoWIN provided strategic support. A vaccine drive meant making sure the campaign was fair, scalable, traceable, and transparent. In this way, there were no possibilities for favouritism or jumping the queue. Moreover, it allowed an unemployed worker to receive the first dose of the vaccine in his village and the second dose after a prescribed period in the city where he works. Furthermore, the QR-coded certificates assured verifiability and provided a real-time dashboard to boost transparency. In India as well as throughout the world, there are very few examples of such efforts.

My Independence Day address in 2015 stressed that our nation is moving forward because of “Team India”, which is made up of 130 crore Indians. The democratic process relies on the active participation of the people. If every citizen in our country participated in the running of our country, our country would advance 130 crore steps every moment. This vaccination drive has once again demonstrated the impressive power of Team India. The success of India in its vaccination drive shows that democracy is a force for good around the world.

The Reaction Of The Center To This Success

The Centre has planned a series of events to commemorate the achievement of 1 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

On Thursday, Jagat Prakash Nadda, the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will visit Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, to express his gratitude. In an interview with news agency ANI, Nadda said that he will arrive at Kailash Mansarovar Bhawan at 10.30 am on October 21, where he will review the vaccination centre’s operations.
Despite the vaccination drive’s rapid advancement, opposition parties questioned the government’s commitment to administer both doses of the vaccine to all adult citizens of the country by December.

In his statement on Wednesday, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told reporters that India has 95 crore adults, according to the last census, and it remains to be seen whether the government will be able to enrol all of them during this year’s 70 remaining days.

Likewise, the Left parties raised the question of whether the country will achieve the year-end target of vaccinating the entire adult population against Covid-19 if 31 per cent of the nation has received both doses so far.

 

Edited by Anupama Roy