New Delhi: The government Tuesday announced that over 21.83 crore vaccine doses had been administered till date, of which 2.13 crore (about 9.7 per cent) were in the 18-44 age group.
Among the states to have administered the most number of doses to the 18-44 age group were Uttar Pradesh (23,14,477 doses), Rajasthan (18,33,043) and Madhya Pradesh (18,10,625), according to government data.
Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal also administered doses to over 10 lakh people in this category.
On 1 June alone, 22,08,941 beneficiaries across all categories were given the vaccine, the data showed. Among them, 9,50,401 received their first dose while 15,467 received their second in the 18-44 age group.
Data also showed that of the total doses given, 4.51 crore were second doses, which is about 20.6 per cent of the doses administered.
Apart from 18-44 year olds, around 1.67 crore of the total doses were given to healthcare workers, 2.43 crore were front line workers, 7.8 crore were of people between the ages of 45 and 60, and 7.79 crore were of people above the age of 60.
Also read: Nearly 12 crore Covid vaccine doses will be available to states, UTs in June, says Modi govt
How states fare on second dose
Since 1 May, when the third phase of the national Covid vaccine programme opened for people in the 18-44 age group, over 2 crore people were vaccinated. Of this, 2,13,01,448 received their first dose while 39,282 received their second dose.
With 29,896 vaccinations, Uttar Pradesh accounts for 76 per cent of all second doses administered in this category till date. Jammu and Kashmir comes next with 4,710 second doses, followed by Karnataka with 1,088 second doses.
The rest of the states have administered between zero to 634 second doses.
Tamil Nadu, which administered 13,89,409 first doses, has administered only 563 second doses so far. Similarly, Delhi, which vaccinated 10,71,776 people with the first dose, has only given 634 second doses.
Uttarakhand, which has given 2,75,622 first doses, has yet to give anyone a second dose.
States have been complaining of a vaccine shortage, and some such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi, have even closed vaccinations for the 18-44 category temporarily. Another factor affecting the number of second doses being administered is the time gap between the two doses.
For Covaxin, beneficiaries must wait between four to six weeks before taking the second dose. For Covishield, an expert committee recommended beneficiaries wait 12 to 16 weeks before getting the second shot.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
Also read: Two vaccine doses needed for ‘strong protection’ against Covid variant from India: FT report