Union health minister reviews vaccine progress as India nears 1 billion doses

Mansukh Mandaviya interacted with principal secretaries and health mission directors of all major states, and reviewed the progress of Covid-19 vaccination, the health ministry said in a statement. “

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the progress of Covid-19 vaccination in 19 big states on Saturday, as India inches closer to administering one billion vaccine doses.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya. (File photo)

Mandaviya interacted with principal secretaries and health mission directors of all major states, and reviewed the progress of Covid-19 vaccination, the health ministry said in a statement. “He underlined that the immediate milestone in India’s Covid-19 vaccination journey is the completion of administration of 100 crore (1 billion) doses,” it said. Till Saturday evening, India has administered 940 million vaccine doses.

“The twin-pronged solution is to follow Covid-19 protocols very strictly and speeding up of vaccination,” Mandaviya said. “Experiments peg the number of first dose recipients not developing severe Covid-19 to be 96% and the number increases to nearly 98% for people who have taken both doses of the vaccine.”