New Delhi: The union territory of Ladakh has vaccinated the highest proportion of its population with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccines, while Uttar Pradesh has not even fully vaccinated one per cent of its population despite having the largest stock of unused vaccines.
According to the health ministry data, while Gujarat is among the most populated states that have vaccinated highest percentage of people, Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu have the highest proportion of wasted vaccines.
In the first phase of the vaccination drive that started on 16 January, vaccines were reserved only for healthcare and frontline workers. From 1 March, all people above the age of 60 and those with comorbidities above the age of 45 became eligible to get the shot.
From 1 April, all citizens above the age of 45 became eligible for the Covid vaccines.
Now, as India prepares to open up its Covid vaccination to all adults starting 1 May, ThePrint takes a look at how states have fared in the inoculation drive, i.e., what percentage of their populations have been vaccinated so far.
Only 1.97 per cent Indians fully vaccinated
A total of 15,22,45,179 doses of the Covid vaccines have been administered in India so far. As many as 12,54,86,929 people have got the first dose of the vaccine, while 2,67,58,250 people have received both doses.
Overall, the smaller states and UTs have fared much better in their vaccination drive, with Ladakh being the top performer. The union territory has fully vaccinated 11 per cent of its population, while over a quarter of the population has received at least one dose.
Among the states with the highest populations, Gujarat and Rajasthan are the top performers.
Gujarat has managed to fully vaccinate 3.42 per cent of the population, while 14.2 per cent have received at least one shot of the vaccine.
Similarly, in Rajasthan, 13.6 per cent of the population has received at least the first shot. Over 2.77 per cent of the population have received both shots.
Apart from Ladakh, Sikkim and Tripura, all other states have less than 20 per cent of the population vaccinated with at least one dose, while less than 5 per cent have received both doses.
Nationally, 1.97 per cent of the people are fully vaccinated, while 9.24 have received at least one dose.
Vaccine wastage
Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu are the states with the highest vaccine wastage. While Lakshadweep wasted 9.76 per cent of its doses, Tamil Nadu wasted 8.83 per cent of its vaccines.
To put this in context, 8.83 per cent wastage in Tamil Nadu translates to as much as 5,16,191 wasted shots — enough to fully vaccinate the entire population of a small region such as Ladakh.
On the other side are states that reported negative vaccine wastage. This means that healthcare workers in these states were able to judiciously use the vaccine vials, managing to vaccinate 11 people from some vials instead of the standard 10.
States like Kerala and Odisha are some examples where negative vaccine wastage was reported.
Vaccine surplus
According to the health ministry, India still has a stock of 1,06,08,207 doses lying with different states.
Uttar Pradesh has the largest stock of 11,80,659 vaccines, followed by Bihar (8,36,283).
Both these states are among the worst performers in vaccination drive.
First dose vs second dose rollout
Since the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine needs to be administered 28-56 days after the first dose, the graph for the second shot should run parallel to the first.
However, the increasing gap between the two plots indicates that many people are delaying their second shot. This could be because of unavailability of vaccines or reluctance to visit hospitals due to the spike in cases.
Covishield vs Covaxin
India is currently administering two vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — developed by the Serum Institute of India, and ICMR and Bharat Biotech, respectively.
Just over nine per cent of the total vaccines administered so far have been Covaxin. More than 90 per cent of the Indians so far have received the Covishield vaccine.
Gender-wise distribution
So far, 52.18 per cent of those vaccinated are men, while 47.8 per cent are women. About 0.01 per cent of the vaccines have been administered to transpersons.
The bar charts are informative, but honestly unreadable with vertical text. Pls flip them horizontally
India was fastest in giving 100 mn Vaccinations in the world. In 85 days. The headlines of this articles gives the impression that India is doing extremely poorly in vaccination too. Headlines could have been that 15 crs doses have been administered, covering 12 crs+ population. But No, your team of reporters want to be the coffin chasers.
The Print is a responsible e paper. It will loose credibility and will go down the tube as NDTV , if Print insist it’s reporters to be gutter inspectors. Time that The Print matures.