NEW DELHI – India launched a massive vaccination campaign this weekend, hoping to use its unique skills in mobilizing millions to make rapid progress in its efforts to protect its population from Covid-19.
Hundreds of thousands of health professionals – the first people to get the vaccines – lined up across the country to get the vaccines, in a national effort that took advantage of the talent of millions of people to make, deliver, register, administer, monitor and protect shots, said India’s Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.
India is targeting about 300,000 doses a day and will increase inoculations depending on the amount of vaccine available, said Vardhan. The country plans to inoculate 300 million of its 1.3 billion inhabitants by August. At the weekend, it was still out of pace to reach the goal, with about 191,000 people being shot on Saturday and 17,000 on Sunday when the campaign ended in most states.
“This is a huge exercise,” said Vardhan, who wrote a book about India’s efforts to eradicate polio. “India has tremendous experience in dealing with these issues.”
Although some countries have struggled with the scale and complexity of a national vaccination campaign, India is confident that it can do better because of its experience in inoculating its poor population and maintaining the electoral infrastructure for about a billion voters.