THE DRIVE THAT NEEDS A PUSH

In the 26 days after the launch of India’s vaccination programme on January 16, 700,000 people in the country were vaccinated against Covid. It was the fastest vaccination campaign in the world at the time. The US, known for having one of the best public healthcare facilities in the world, took two more days to reach the same number. Yet, after that, the numbers began to fall. India was vaccinating roughly 250,000 people per day, while the US hit 1.2 million per day. As on March 1, less than 1 per cent of India’s total population had received the first dose of the Covid vaccine. It became clear that to achieve