India Reaches 1 Million COVID-19 Vaccinations In Six Days: Health Ministry

India COVID vaccinations have hit 1 million in six days, making us,  the fastest country to reach the milestone number. India has administered over 25 lakh vaccine doses till now. In a statement, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said," We achieved this within 6 days, US did this in 10 days, Spain in 12 days, Israel in 14 days, UK in 18 days, Italy in 19 days, Germany in 20 days and UAE in 27 days." He further added that the number of active cases are declining in our country. There has been a steady and declining trend with about 1,75,000 active cases as of now. 

Breaking the contribution of the cases, Kerala has 72,000 active cases while Maharashtra has 44,000 active cases. These two states contribute to the major 67 percent of the total caseload in India. However, the COVID-19 positivity rate is 5.51% and declining.

Meanwhile states including Odisha, Haryana, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are showing better performance with over 35 per cent vaccination coverage of healthcare workers. The government also said that Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have less than 21 pc(pneumococcal) vaccination coverage.

India has been following a pro-active testing process with more than 19.5 crore COVID-19 tests conducted up till now. 

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired the 23rd meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 through a video-conference on Thursday. Post the meeting, the health ministry has issued the statement. 

The statement recorded that India has flattened its COVID-19 graph. In fact,  146 districts have reported no new case of the viral disease in the last seven days, 18 in 14 days, six in 21 days and 21 districts in the last 28 days.

So far India has tallied over 1.07 crore coronavirus cases with 11,666 new coronavirus infections being reported per day as per the latest data. However, the national recovery rate climbed to 96.94 per cent which is huge relief.

Status of the pandemic in the U.S. and U.K.

After the new COVID-19 mutant strain was discovered in U.K., there has been a surge in the cases. However, the vaccination drive in the country has already begun. The country's death toll approached 1,00,000. Earlier this week, the Health Ministry of Britain has decided to expand the vaccination program.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday that three-quarters of the U.K.’s over-80s have received a vaccine shot. Also, more than 6 million people received the first of two doses.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the new administration under President Joe Biden is looking to increase the rate of vaccinations effectively. They are planning to buy 200 million COVID-19 vaccine from the manufactures, Moderna and Pfizer. The state a8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million doses per week.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS) is aiming to supply to states from 8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million doses per week.