Covid booster jabs see 10% dip from last week despite govt push

Just five of 36 states/UTs have covered at least a third of the adult population with a booster dose

One of the objectives of the free booster programme, launched on July 15 for 75 days, was to increase the speed of administering the third dose of Covid-19 vaccine in the country.

Although the government has distributed nearly 100 million doses in the last 45 days, a Business Standard analysis found that administering booster doses has slowed down. Given the declining pace, the Centre is reportedly pushing states to ramp up the coverage of booster doses. The government had set a target to administer a booster dose to all eligible adults by September 28.

The analysis shows that till August 30, only five of the 36 states/UTs had administered a booster dose to at least a third of the adult population. Out of the 768 million adults eligible for a booster dose, 159 million or one in five had received a booster dose.

Among the larger states, Andhra Pradesh had administered a booster dose to 34.5 per cent of the eligible people, whereas Chhattisgarh had vaccinated 34.4 per cent.
 

Delhi’s booster dose vaccination rate was 20.9 per cent, and Jharkhand’s was 8.7 per cent. Four states had booster dose coverage of less than 10 per cent. And 18 had an administration rate lower than the national average of 20.6 per cent.

Further analysis shows that for 19 of the 36 states/UTs, the average daily booster vaccination in the 18-59 years age group had declined for the week ending August 30 compared to August 23, and was lower than the levels achieved a month ago (August 2).

For instance, in Madhya Pradesh, the average daily vaccination for the week ending August 30 had declined 73.3 per cent to 47,489 doses, compared to 177,175 doses for the week ending August 23. Madhya Pradesh had administered over 200,000 daily doses in the August 2 week.

In Tamil Nadu, booster dose administration had declined from 89,980 on August 23 to 22,177 on August 30.

Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan were among the 17 states/UTs registering an increase. Even though booster numbers in Gujarat had risen to 221,196 doses per day, it was lower than the peak of 324,783 doses hit on August 2.

India’s daily booster dose administration averaged 1.9 million on August 30, compared to 2.2 million achieved in the previous week.

At the current pace, India will be able to administer a booster dose to 212 million people by the end of 75 days on September 28, when coverage would have increased to 26.7 per cent of the eligible population.