PM Modi lauds health, frontline workers and scientists as India's Covid vaccination drive completes 1 year

New Delhi, Jan 16: As India completed one year of its COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday (January 16, 2022), Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed each and every person associated with it in a series of tweets.

Taking it to Twitter, PM Modi wrote, "Today we mark #1YearOfVaccineDrive. I salute each and every individual who is associated with the vaccination drive. Our vaccination programme has added great strength to the fight against COVID-19. It has led to saving lives and thus protecting livelihoods."

The countrywide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Sunday completed one year, during which over 156.76 crore of vaccine doses were administered. According to health ministry officials, over 92 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose while over 68 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

The Centre will issue a postal stamp on Sunday afternoon to mark the completion of one year of the inoculation drive. The drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase.

Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2. The next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. Vaccination of all people aged over 45 from April 1. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the inoculation drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.

India started administering the precaution dose of Covid vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers, which include polling personnel deployed in the five poll-bound states, and comorbid people aged 60 and above from January 10 in a bid to stymie the coronavirus spread driven by its Omicron variant.