Fourth wave of Covid-19: Threat of Omicron has not gone away from India, warns govt

New Delhi: Amid concerns over the fourth wave of Covid-19 possibly hitting India in mid-June, Union Health Ministry has said that the threat of the Omicron variant has not gone away from the country.

Lav Agarwal, the Joint Secretary in Union Health Ministry, on Monday added that the country has done a commendable job in inoculating the majority of the people in the country with Covid-19 vaccinations.

Speaking at an event in Delhi, Agarwal said, "We provided vaccines to 99 countries across the world. India completed 250 million doses in 145 days. Right now, I`m proud to highlight that we have completed 1.81 billion doses of vaccination."

"Threat of Omicron variant has not gone away from India, but we have been able to successfully manage as high as 23 times better than the world`s overall management of COVID-19 when it comes to saving precious lives," said Agarwal.

Agarwal further highlighted that QR-coded digital certificates were given to every citizen for every COVID-19 dose delivered. He said, "We gave QR-coded digital certificates to every citizen for every COVID-19 dose delivered. We have not leveraged technology, we have leveraged human resources in this country, which worked with commitment."

India`s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 181.52 crore (1,81,52,45,644) on Monday evening. More than 27 lakh (27,07,127) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Monday. The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination started on January 16, 2021. 

The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on June 21, 2021. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advanced visibility of vaccine availability to States and UTs for enabling better planning by them and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. 

In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.