India's health minister, in November 2020, stated that 300 million people would be vaccinated against Covid-19 by July-2021. The deadline is less than a month away and the country must maintain a high rate of vaccinations to reach its goal.The country has vaccinated 64.8 million people so far, which is less than 21% of the 300 million required.India must give approximately 4.5 million doses per day to fully vaccinate its target population by August. Prioritisation of second doses would be given to those who have already received the first dose.This pace has been reached only recently, with the country administering between 4 and 5 millions doses per day for the past few weeks. It remains to see if enough vaccine doses will be available to sustain this pace over the next two-months.Despite the fact that Covid-19 vaccines were only available to healthcare workers and frontline personnel in January, the country was still close to its goal. The government has since opened its vaccination program to all adults over 18 years old.So far, less than 5% of India's estimated 1.3 billion population has been fully vaccinated.Our World in Data Share of India's population who have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19This is concerning in a country that saw its second and most severe wave of Covid-19 due to the Delta variant. This variant is more easily transmissible and lowers the effectiveness of vaccines. However, people who are fully vaccinated are greatly protected from severe illness and hospitalisation.There is hope for India's vaccine programEven though the government announced this target last year it didn't clarify whether it meant that all people were fully vaccinated. It has exceeded its target of offering at least one dose (Covid-19) to 300 million people. Just 20% of India's population has been partially vaccinated.Our World in Data Indians were vaccinated at least once with a Covid-19 vaccine.However, India's shift in vaccine procurement policy has meant that the goalposts have been moved.India's vaccine target in 2021The Indian government is hopeful that it will have enough vaccines to protect its 1.08 billion adult population by December, despite a worldwide shortage and dire shortage in India.India's health ministry has created a roadmap to procure 2.16 billion vaccines between December and August. Many of these have not received emergency approval in India.One month after the announcement of this goal, the government informed the country's supreme court on June 27 that 1.35 Billion doses would be available between August & December. This estimate was 800 millions lower than what the May projections of the health ministry had predicted.
