Vaccination pace has been slowed down.

The pace of Covid-19 vaccination has slowed down considerably in July, after a booming start to the new phase of universal vaccination on June 21, when a record 87 lakh doses were administered. It was then that the target of 13.5 crore doses for July was announced. Official data shows that the weekly doses administered had come down from a high of 4.5 crore in the week ending June 26 to 2.8 crore in the week ending July 25. However, this is still significantly higher than the weekly average of 1.51 crore doses administered during the 27 weeks until July 23. On June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced free vaccines from June 21 for those above 18.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the country reported 39,361 daily new infections of Covid-19 on Monday. The Ministry said the last 29 days have seen less than 50,000 daily new cases. As on Monday, India’s active caseload stood at 4,11,189 cases.

According to the Ministry, the daily positivity rate has come down to 3.41%. “Daily positivity rate has remained below 5%for 49 consecutive days now,” the Ministry said.

India is likely to miss its vaccination target of 13.5 crore doses for July if it continues to vaccinate at the current pace. Till Sunday, 9.94 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered this month, at an average of about 38.26 lakh doses per day. At the current pace, India would end up administering about 12.5 crore doses by the end of July. To meet the target of 13.5 crore, about 60 lakh daily doses would have to be administered, a number that has been attained only twice this month.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Monday said that over 43.51 crore vaccines have been administered across the country. “18,99,874 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours,” the Ministry said in a statement. Data shows that over 34 crore people have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. More than 9.3 crore people have received both doses.