In a significant achievement, India has become the fastest country in the world to reach the 4 million COVID-19 vaccination mark in 18 days, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Wednesday.
“As on February 1, 2021, India was among the top five countries in terms of the number of COVID19 vaccine doses administered to people. India continues to undertake its vaccination drive at a fast pace,” the Ministry said.
Nearly 45 lakh beneficiaries have received the vaccination under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise until now.
Nearly 4.5 million beneficiaries vaccinated against #COVID19 in 19 days.
India is the fastest country to cross the landmark of vaccinating 4 million beneficiaries in merely 18 days.https://t.co/mbEtlle9QA pic.twitter.com/kYOV0zQfeb
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) February 4, 2021
Meanwhile, India’s Serum Institute will be supplying 1.1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Novavax to around 100 countries for approximately USD 3 per dose for the low and lower-middle-income countries, said Henrietta Fore, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) chief, on Wednesday.
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“Today, we are pleased to announce the conclusion of a long-term supply agreement with the Serum Institute of India for the COVID-19 vaccines, to access two vaccine products through technology transfer from AstraZeneca and Novavax,” Sputnik quoted Fore as saying at a COVAX press briefing. She further said, “UNICEF, along with our procurement partners including PAHO, will have access to up to 1.1 billion doses of vaccines for around 100 countries for approximately USD 3 a dose for the low- and lower-middle-income countries.”
India on January 16 began its mammoth coronavirus vaccine rollout by administering 2,07,229 shots on the first day with the help of hundreds of thousands of health workers who were trained and assisted by the UN agencies.
The Central government has introduced an application named CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work) to monitor the entire vaccination process.
Two vaccines–Covaxin and Covishield– have received Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU) after going through established safety and immunogenicity in a well-prescribed regulatory process and these will be administered during the vaccination drive.
(With ANI Inputs)