OVER 82.7 lakh vaccine doses, the highest in a single day, were administered across the country on Monday as the revised guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination came into effect, the Union Health Ministry said. India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage has reached 28.33 crore since January 16, it said. “Today’s record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight COVID-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine,” Prime Minister Modi said. The previous single-day record was of over 48 lakh on April 1. In June so far, India saw an average vaccination of around 31 lakh per day.

 

The average single-day vaccinations fell to as low as around 16 lakh in the first week of May when the country was at the peak of the second wave. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Modi said that Central Government is beginning the ‘Free Vaccination For All campaign’ for every Indian from today. “The biggest beneficiary of this phase of India’s vaccination drive shall be the poor, the middle class and the youth of the country. All of us should pledge to get ourselves vaccinated. Together we will defeat COVID-19,” he said. According to the revised guidelines, vaccine doses provided free of cost by the Centre will be allocated to States and UTs based on criteria such as population, disease burden and the progress of vaccination, and all above the age of 18 will be eligible for the free jabs.

 

Any wastage of vaccine will affect the allocation negatively, they said. The Centre will now procure 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country. It had earlier allowed States and private hospitals to procure 50 per cent of the vaccines. However, after several States complained of problems including of funding, Modi announced the revision of the vaccine guidelines on June 8. In order to incentivise production by vaccine manufacturers and encourage new vaccines, domestic vaccine manufacturers are given the option to also provide vaccines directly to private hospitals. This would be restricted to 25 percent of their monthly production, the new guidelines stated. Daily COVID-19 count lowest in 88 days: INDIA logged 53,256 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 88 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,99,35,221, while the active cases further reduced to 7,02,887, according to the Health Ministry on Monday. The death toll climbed to 3,88,135 with 1,422 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 65 days.