“India has performed very well when it comes to the administration of doses across the world,” Mandaviya said while addressing the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday that 86 per cent of the country’s population eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine has received its first dose and that the Centre wishes to inoculate everyone at the earliest.
“India has performed very well when it comes to the administration of doses across the world,” Mandaviya said while addressing the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
“In the United States, 70 per cent of people have received the first dose. As many as 72 per cent have received the first dose in Germany and in France, the government has achieved 80 per cent first dose administration. While in Russia, the rate of first dose administration is at 46 per cent…” he added.
Mandaviya added a total of 70 million vaccine doses are still lying with states and Union territories (UTs). The Union health minister also cautioned against possible vaccine hesitancy that might be triggered by claims of health complications after vaccination.
In India, the vaccination coverage has exceeded 1.31 billion with over 7.45 million doses administered in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Friday morning.
Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha about Omicron, health minister Mandaviya said studies are being conducted and only after they are completed, the effectiveness of vaccines against the latest variant of the coronavirus will be known, which was first discovered in South Africa last month.
Till now, India has reported 23 cases of the Omicron variant with Maharashtra leading the tally. However, the cumulative count dropped to 14 after nine patients from Rajasthan tested negative for Covid-19 on Thursday. Globally, the cases of Omicron are more than 2,300.
Amid the fears of an increased spread of the variant, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday extended the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services till January 31 next year.
