Would Uttar Pradesh take three years to fully vaccinate its population against COVID-19? Centre responds

Centre on Friday (July 30, 2021) commented on the media reports that alleged slow pace of COVID-19 vaccination drive in Uttar Pradesh.

A clarification was issued on the news report which claimed that it will take three years for UP to fully vaccinate its population against COVID-19.

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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare clarified that the news report is 'misleading' as it takes into account the average daily vaccination rate from the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination drive in order to show a low rate of vaccination and then further uses this number to claim that the states will take many years to complete the vaccination drive for its citizens.

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The Health Ministry stated that using an average when the availability of vaccines was extremely low across the world (including India) and then extrapolating the low rate by comparing it with present data when the vaccine supply is expected to be very high, may also lead to vaccine hesitancy which is a global issue during vaccination.

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The Centre informed that the vaccine availability and vaccination rate have been consistently improving across the country and that it must also be kept in mind that Uttar Pradesh is India's largest state in terms of population. 

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As per the 2011 census, Uttar Pradesh has over 19 crore population, which, notably, is higher than many counties including Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

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The Health Ministry said that Uttar Pradesh is committed to providing free vaccination to all its eligible citizens as soon as possible despite the huge size of the state with a sizable rural population.

The Government of India said that the state has been continuously improving its monthly vaccine coverage from a mere 4.63 lakh in January to over 1.54 crore in the month of July. 

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"Adding to its high vaccination coverage, the state's 'cluster approach' for vaccination and creating special 'pink booths' to encourage women of the state to take a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine has shown positive results," the Health Ministry said.

Uttar Pradesh has so far recorded a vaccination coverage of 4.67 crores. 

(File Photo: Reuters)