India’s vaccine drive sluggish after 6 months of ambitious campaign

New Delhi, July 16 (EFE).- India’s ambitious anti-coronavirus vaccination drive remains sluggish six months after the country began the campaign to vaccinate 300 million people by August.

Health officials have fully vaccinated just 79.2 million Indian recipients, which is less than 6 percent of its 1.35 billion population.

It is a mere eight percent of the target of 950 million people, the entire adult population, who were supposed to be inoculated by the year-end.

Overall, India had administered 395 million doses of vaccines since Jan.16, when the drive began.

Just over 316 million people or nearly 22 percent of India’s population have received their first jab, the data from the federal health ministry showed.

The figures are far from the goal the authorities had set for the first half of the year.

Last year in November, the government had vowed to inoculate 300 million people against Covid-19 by July-August 2021.

A month to go before the deadline expires, nearly three-fourths of the target for the first six months is still unaccomplished.

On May 1, the government revisited the goal to inoculate all the people aged 18 and above by the year-end, which meant vaccinating 950 people.

The campaign in the country known as the largest vaccine maker in the world has been sluggish due to several factors, including low vaccination supplies and the government’s inordinate delay in approving new vaccines.