One billion doses of COVID-19 Vaccine in 10 months a phenomenal achievement: FICCI

Oct 21, 2021

NEW DELHI, 21 October 2021: As the county celebrates the landmark milestone of vaccinating the citizens with 1 billion doses, FICCI assures that the collective and collaborative spirit of fighting the pandemic will continue.

Mr Uday Shankar, President, FICCI said, "Administering 1 billion doses of COVID-19 Vaccine in 10 months is a phenomenal achievement by India, especially in these trying times. FICCI lauds the Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi for his strong leadership and grand visions. We are also grateful to the government for seamless execution of all initiatives, and assure industry's complete support, the way we have collaborated for tackling the pandemic."

India launched its countrywide vaccination drive on 16 January 2021 with healthcare and frontline workers getting inoculated in the first phase. The second phase covered people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions and the third phase covered all people aged over 45 years, which was initiated from 1 April. The government then expanded its vaccination drive by allowing all above 18 to be vaccinated from 1 May.

"As we vaccinate more than 75% of our adult population and move towards vaccinating the children between 2 and 18 years, we need to continue to maintain our guard through COVID Appropriate Behaviour, only then will we be able to protect ourselves adequately," added Mr Shankar.

The country has achieved many notable milestones since the pandemic started early last year. Starting from our pro-active readiness for test-track-treat, boost to technology enabled care through the roll out of Telemedicine Guidelines and the recent launch of Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission, along with constant efforts for augmenting our human resources and physical healthcare infrastructure.

FICCI has been a bridge between the government and the industry through various collaborations at centre, state and local levels- whether it was for mobility or logistics, transfer of technology or tie-ups for expanding manufacturing capacities, apart from the various strategic recommendations on tackling the COVID pandemic.