At 53.86 lakh, day 2 of Covid-19 vaccinations see big dip

New Delhi, June 23: India inoculated 53.86 lakh people on Tuesday, a sharp dip after Monday's record 85 lakh, throwing up questions on sustainability of such large scale vaccination.

Over 85.15 lakh vaccine doses, the highest in a single day, were administered across the country on Monday as the revised guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination came into effect.

The previous single-day record was of over 48 lakh doses on April 1. In June so far, India saw an average vaccination of over 31 lakh per day.

The average single-day vaccinations fell to as low as around 16 lakh in the first week of May when the country was at the peak of the second wave.

Madhya Pradesh saw the maximum vaccinations on Monday followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain, the ministry said.

During May 2021, more than 7.9 crore vaccines were available for the nationwide COVID19 vaccination exercise. These were ramped up to 11.78 crore in June.