India asks states to speed up COVID-19 vaccination

India’s government urged states and union territories on Saturday to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations after a review found “substantial” room for speeding up the programme.

India started what it says in the world’s biggest vaccination programme on January 16, aiming to reach 300 million people by July-August.

12 states and union territories have vaccinated 60 per cent of their healthcare workers so far but many need to improve their performance, the government said after a review by the federal health secretary.

It said in a statement there remains “substantial scope for improvement in the number of average vaccinations per vaccination session.”

India vaccinated about three million healthcare workers in the first two weeks of the campaign – an average of just over 200,000 a day – but will have to accelerate to meet its summer coverage target.

The government asked states to schedule all healthcare workers for vaccination at least once by February 20 and all frontline workers by March 6.

India, the world’s most populous country after China, is relying on the CoWIN app to link beneficiaries with vaccines despite initial glitches in the software which slowed the vaccination programme.