As the government’s massive vaccination campaign stalls, India became the third country to exceed 400,000 Covid-19 fatalities, according to official statistics released on Friday.
According to the health ministry, the nation has recorded 400,312 Covid-19 fatalities, second only to the United States and Brazil, and over 30.5 million cases have been documented in total.
After a catastrophic surge in cases in April and May that overloaded hospitals, many analysts believe India’s real death toll is more than a million.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed victory against the virus in January, the increase was blamed on the Delta variety and the government’s complacency.
The number of daily cases has dropped considerably since then, and several restrictions on activities have been removed, prompting concerns of a fresh surge in the coming months.
The government hopes to completely vaccinate all 1.1 billion people in the nation this year, but because of shortages, administrative uncertainty, and reluctance, only around 5% have received two doses so far.
On June 21, the government attempted to kickstart the campaign by making vaccinations free for all adults, resulting in a spike in demand and the administration of nearly nine million injections in one day.
According to official statistics, daily immunization rates have now dropped again, averaging slightly over four million per day during the last week.
According to media reports, a government declaration filed with the Supreme Court this week reduced the number of dosages the government anticipates to be accessible between August and December from 2.16 billion to 1.35 billion.
According to sources, the filing listed five types of vaccine, down from eight in May’s estimate, and reduced the number of expected AstraZeneca doses to 500 million from 750 million before.
India authorized the Moderna vaccine for home use on Tuesday.
Zydus Cadila, an Indian pharmaceutical company, said on Thursday that it has filed for FDA clearance for its plasmid DNA-based vaccine, which had a 67 percent effectiveness rate in testing.
Cadila’s chief executive, Sharvil Patel, said during a press conference that the company planned to manufacture 50 million doses by the end of the year, with a monthly production of 10 million.
