Lakshadweep may achieve full Covid-19 vaccination ahead of other states, UTs

People familiar with the development said the vaccination coverage is more than 70% in Sikkim, Goa and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. India’s cumulative vaccination doses administered reached 108 crore on Saturday.

Lakshadweep is the first among states and Union Territories to likely achieve 100% vaccination coverage as it vaccinated 99.2 % of its eligible population with both doses, news agency PTI reported.

The health ministry said that 78.7% of India's adult population received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Among all the states and Union Territories, nine of them have administered the first dose to all its 18-plus age group population. (Reuters/Representative Photo)

People familiar with the development said the vaccination coverage is more than 70% in Sikkim, Goa and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. India’s cumulative vaccination doses administered reached 108 crore on Saturday.

“Lakshadweep (99.2 %) is close to achieving full COVID-19 vaccination of its eligible population, while Sikkim has achieved 87.8%, Goa 79.7% and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 72.2%,” the officials said.

The health ministry said that 78.7% of India's adult population received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Among all the states and Union Territories, nine of them have administered the first dose to all its 18-plus age group population.

The eligible population in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have received at least one dose of vaccine. The officials pointed out that more than 36% of the country's around 94 crore adult population have now been administered both doses.

The highest number of doses were administered by Uttar Pradesh followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The ministry wrote to several states and union territories asking them to prioritise administering the second dose to people who have not gotten themselves vaccinated with the second dose even after the prescribed interval between the two doses expired, the officials mentioned above further added.

The government has also launched a month-long “Har Ghar Dastak” campaign for house-to-house Covid-19 vaccination of those who are yet to be vaccinated with the first dose and those whose second dose is overdue.