Ahead of US, UK, here's what India's Covid-19 vaccination rate tells

While India took only six days to roll out one million vaccine doses, the United States took 10 days to reach the mark and the United Kingdom took 18 days to achieve the one million-mark, the ministry said.

India has covered more people in only a few days on its vaccination drive, which has surpassed the inoculation rate of the United States and the United Kingdom, the health ministry said on Sunday. While India took only six days to roll out one million vaccine doses, the United States took 10 days to reach the mark and the United Kingdom took 18 days to achieve the one million-mark, the ministry said. Both the countries began vaccination drives before India, but India managed to cover a huge number of population at a shorter span.

Mirzapur: Health workers applaud a medic after she took the first dose of Covishield vaccine during the COVID-19 vaccination drive, at District Woman Hospital in Mirzapur, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. (PTI Photo)(PTI01_22_2021_000060B) (PTI)

The drive in India began on January 16 and till January 24, India inoculated 15,82,201 people. All of them are healthcare workers as in the first phase, the country is providing vaccines to only healthcare workers.

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Among the states, Karnataka has vaccinated the highest number of people. The number of beneficiaries in Karnataka stands at 1,88,971. Next is Odisha with 1,52,371 beneficiaries. State which have vaccinated over 1 lakh people are Andhra Pradesh (1,47,030), Telangana (1,10,031), Uttar Pradesh (1,23,761. Maharashtra has vaccinated 99,885 people so far.

Source: Union health ministry

The vaccination process has been running smooth, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said, though there were reports of minor glitches in the Co-WIN app delaying the process at the initial stage. New features have been added to the app so that if a beneficiary does not turn up for vaccination, the slot can be allocated to another one etc.

A survey conducted in 28 countries by Edelman PR's Trust Barometer 2021 has revealed that India's are most willing to get vaccinated while both the UK and the US reported some kind of vaccine hesitancy. The survey said 80% Indians were willing to get vaccinated as against 66% in the UK and 59% in the US.