New Delhi: Administering over 100 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine simply mean covering almost the entire population of United States, Indonesia, Pakistan and Brazil, a rare feat achieved by our foot soldiers, bureaucrats and other stakeholders who have been working day in and day out since January 16, when the first vaccine doses were administered. On an average, over 27 lakh doses have been given every day through this period to achieve the milestone.

Braving all odds and challenges, Indian bureaucracy along with support from NGOs, civil society, academic institutions and other stakeholders under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has worked with immense patience, perseverance and vision to carry out the world’s biggest vaccination drive so smoothly, which is something unheard of in known human history. “Convincing people to take vaccines was so challenging initially, but our consistent efforts bore the required results,” said a senior officer of Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry while speaking to Bureaucrats India, requesting not to be named.

India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage crossed 1 billion mark by administering 1,00,02,20,711 as per the provisional reports till 12 pm on October 21. India’s recovery rate stands at 98.14 per cent. Recovery rate is currently at its highest peak since March 2020.

Sustained and collaborative efforts by the Centre and the States/UTs continue the trend of less than 50,000 daily new cases that is being reported for 114 consecutive days now. The active caseload has fallen below 2 lakh mark and is presently at 1,83,118, which is now lowest since March 2020. 

While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, the weekly positivity rate at 1.36 per cent remains less than 3 per cent for the last 116 days now. The daily positivity rate reported to be 1.11 per cent. The daily positivity rate has remained below 3 per cent for the last 50 days and below 5 per cent for 133 consecutive days now. /BI/