Goa is leading the Covid-19 vaccination race among Indian states. Till Thursday morning, the coastal state had vaccinated over 37.35% of its 15.9 lakh population by at least one dose, a calculation based on health ministry data showed.
A close second is the north-eastern state of Sikkim with 37.29% of its population receiving the first shot, according to the latest available figures. At 30.35% first-dose vaccination, Himachal Pradesh is at a distant third position.
Kerala, which has witnessed multiple infection waves, has inoculated over a quarter or 26.23% of its people with the first dose. Gujarat with over 2 crore vaccine doses administered so far is in a neck-and-neck contest with Kerala at 25.69%.
The Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Delhi, at constant loggerheads with the Centre over vaccine doses, too, has been doing well with 25.39% of its population already vaccinated with the first dose. 47.52 lakh people of the 1.87 crore population in the national capital have already received the first jab of the two-dose vaccines.
Other north-eastern states including Tripura and Mizoram have vaccinated 29% and 28% of their respective populations with the first dose. Mountainous Uttarakhand and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir have inoculated over 24% of their respective populations.
However, with over half of their population already injected once, the union territories of Lakshadweep and Ladakh have been outliers in the vaccination race. While Lakshadweep with a population of over 73,000 has inoculated 58% of the island inhabitants, thinly populated Ladakh has achieved 54% first-dose vaccination, setting an example for other states to follow.
Among larger states, other than the ones already mentioned, Karnataka has so far vaccinated 22% of its 6.75 crore population with the first dose, followed by Rajasthan (21%), Telangana (19%), Andhra Pradesh (18%), Maharashtra (17%), Punjab (17%) and Odisha (16%).
Overall, India has inoculated over 21.58 crore or 15.74% of its people with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ladakh, Tripura and Lakshadweep are also leading in the number of overall vaccination, i.e., administering the recommended two doses. While Ladakh and Tripura have inoculated 13% of their respective populations, Lakshadweep’s complete vaccination coverage stands at over 10%.
India’s most populous state — Uttar Pradesh — despite making a vaccination stride in the past few weeks still remains at the bottom of the list. The state with over 23.7 crore or 17% of the country’s population has administered more than 2 crore people with the first dose. This means just 8.53% of its populace has received a shot.
Starting June 1, Uttar Pradesh is working on an ambitious target to intensify vaccination by inoculating 1 crore people in the current month. Overall with more than 2.42 crore doses the BJP-ruled state is just behind Maharashtra, which has to date administered 2.67 crore doses.
Bihar, which had done exceptionally well in vaccinating its targeted healthcare beneficiaries, shares space with UP at the bottom with just 8.6% of its 12.48 crore people partially vaccinated to date.
Other laggards include Assam (11%), Jharkhand (12%), Tamil Nadu (12%) and West Bengal (14%) in first-dose coverage.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on January 16, 2021, launched India’s Covid-19 immunisation drive — the world’s largest vaccination exercise — with 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers kept first in line for inoculation against the deadly disease.
Worldwide, Canada has outraced other countries by vaccinating around 65.4% of its 3.7 crore population with at least one dose.
It is followed by Israel with 63.3% of its Jewish-majority population having received at least one jab till Wednesday. The United Kingdom, Chile and Bahrain with vaccination rates of 61.6%, 61.4% and 60.5% respectively are in the third, fourth and fifth positions globally, according to data compiled by the University of Oxford.
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