MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Government of India has called on states and trade union territories on Saturday to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations after an investigation found considerable room to speed up the program.
India launched the world’s largest vaccination program on 16 January, aiming to reach 300 million people by July-August.
Twelve states and union districts have so far vaccinated 60% of their health workers, but many need to improve their performance, the government said after an investigation by the federal health secretary.
A statement said there was significant room for improvement in the number of average vaccinations per vaccination session. “
India has vaccinated about 3 million health workers in the first two weeks of the campaign – averaging just over 200,000 a day – but will have to accelerate to reach its summer cover target.
The government has asked states to plan for all health workers at least once by February 20 for vaccination and all leading workers on March 6.
India, the world’s most populous country after China, relies on the CoWIN app to connect beneficiaries with vaccinations, despite initial bugs in the software that slows down the vaccination program.
India has officially reported more than 10.8 million infections, the world’s highest after the United States, although its daily cases have declined sharply since peaking at nearly 100,000 in mid-September. The death toll is nearly 155,000.
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy, Editing by Timothy Heritage)