Milestone in India - one billion vaccine doses administered

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Medical staff celebrate the Indian vaccination success in a hospital in Bangalore.

Photo: MANJUNATH KIRAN / AFP

It's a milestone that inspires a bit of confidence: more than a billion corona vaccine doses have been administered in India.

The Indian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday in New Delhi that around 75 percent of adults are simply vaccinated and 31 percent are fully vaccinated.

This is an "enormous achievement - in view of the logistical complexity," the United Nations Children's Fund Unicef ​​praised the country in a statement on Thursday.

More than 1.3 billion people live in India.

India as "the world's pharmacy"

With the number of vaccinations, international hopes are rising that India will follow its reputation as the “pharmacy of the world” and that it will soon be able to provide vaccination doses again for the UN vaccination program Covax.

Because India is one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines - at Corona, the country has so far mainly produced AstraZeneca vaccine under the name Covishield.

India was designated as a major supplier to Covax earlier this year - delivering millions of cans to the program and mostly poorer countries.

Then in spring the country was hit hard by the second wave including the delta variant.

The government then imposed an export ban on corona vaccines.

The corona numbers in India have now been comparatively low again for months - even if many people no longer adhere to the corona rules.

The Indian government has set itself the goal of vaccinating all adults against corona by the end of the year.

Only India's neighboring country, China, with roughly the same number of inhabitants, has so far administered more vaccine doses.

atb / dpa