DNA Special: Why it is important for more Indians to get vaccinated to beat spike in COVID-19 cases

India is reeling under the second wave of COVID-19 and according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), India recorded 72,330 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. India also reported 459 more deaths and another 40,382 hospital discharges in the last 24 hours, as per the health ministry data on Thursday (April 1).

Vaccinations for people above the age of 45 years also began in India on Thursday. People were quite upbeat about the vaccination drive and came in huge numbers to get inoculated.

India is the third country in the world in terms of numbers to have given the maximum vaccine doses.

More than 15 crore doses have been administered in the US. China is a close second with 11 crore vaccine doses, while more than 6.5 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India so far.

All the states and Union Territories have been instructed to continue vaccination on weekly holidays and public holidays also. From Thursday onwards, all people above 45 years of age will be inoculated in India. This means if you were born before January 1, 1977, you can get vaccinated.

However, according to the total population, Israel is at the forefront of the matter. In Israel, at least one dose of vaccine has been administered to 60 per cent of the population. The United Kingdom comes second where 45 per cent of the people have been vaccinated, while Chile has vaccinated 35 per cent of its population. That means India is far behind with only 4 per cent of the total population been given at least one dose of vaccine.

In India, vaccination for people above 45 years of age means only 20 per cent of the population can get vaccinated at present. While many countries in the world have started vaccinating vaccines for all people above 18 years of age. A total of 14 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, China, Canada, Israel and Saudi Arabia are vaccinating people above 18 years of age. 

With a second wave of the COVID-19 virus looming large on the Indian population, it is imperative that the scope of vaccination be increased to cover the maximum population and to prevent the spike in Coronavirus cases.