After record Monday, vaccination numbers see drastic fall as ‘Delta plus’ threatens third wave in India

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FILE: KM/UMAR GANIE

After a record high Covid-19 vaccination on Monday of over 88 lakh doses, India on Tuesday inoculated 52.8 lakh people till 10 pm.

According to the centre, Monday’s increase wasn’t a sudden development but the result of coordinated planning with states and improved supplies of vaccines.

Madhya Pradesh emerged as the big success story of the blockbuster vaccination day on Monday — recording over 16 lakh jabs. The Indore district alone recorded nearly 2.2 lakh jabs, nearly three times the number recorded by Delhi.

The centre expressed confidence that with the increase in vaccine production and a better advance schedule of supplies, the number is expected to remain high. It also added that the participation of private sector would improve vaccination rates, a report in Times of India said.

The Delta plus variant, a new mutant version of the Delta strain first detected in India, has been found in three states in the country.

Twenty-one cases of the ‘Delta plus’ variant, considered highly infectious, have been reported in Maharashtra threatening to massively dent the state’s fight against the virus as experts warn that this variant may trigger a third wave of the pandemic in the state.

The highly contagious Delta variant is the “greatest threat” to America’s attempt to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has warned.

Speaking at a White House briefing on COVID-19 on Tuesday, Fauci said the variant, which was first identified in India, now makes up more than 20 per cent of all new cases in the US, a significant increase from nearly 10 per cent two weeks ago.

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