1/3rd of eligible population fully jabbed in Gujarat, highest in India

AHMEDABAD: On Friday, Gujarat witnessed vaccination of a record 23.6 lakh persons – 9 lakh got the first dose while 14.6 lakh took the second shot of Covid-19 vaccine. With this, Gujarat now has 33% or one-third of its eligible population (above 18 years) fully vaccinated.

As of Saturday morning, 1.64 crore out of 4.93 crore eligible population is fully vaccinated. Moreover, 3.96 crore have taken at least one shot, covering 80.5% of the state’s eligible population.
Analysis of the total population coverage reveals that Gujarat tops in both first and second dose coverage in India.While 27% of the state’s total population is fully vaccinated, 59% is covered with at least one dose.
Among the major states in terms of total vaccination, Karnataka comes second with 56% and 21% coverage for first and second doses, Madhya Pradesh third with 55% and 15% coverage, respectively.
Dr Nayan Jani, state immunization officer, said that the state’s one-third population is fully vaccinated, which would be a major factor to thwart the third wave of the pandemic. “We are happy with the response on September 17 as about 68% of the vaccination took place in rural areas. Cities like Surat also recorded high vaccination,” he said.
While some of the districts were behind the state average, as of Saturday morning, the majority had 70% or above coverage for the first dose. Among cities, Jamnagar has 81% of its eligible population getting both the shots, followed by Gandhinagar (75%). Ahmedabad and Surat recorded coverage of 41% of the eligible population for full vaccination.
Experts stressed the need for vaccination as the state for the past three days had recorded a rise in daily Covid cases. On Friday itself, the state had 25 new cases, the highest in 33 days. Ahmedabad had doubled the cases at 11 – the highest in two months.