India’s COVID-19 vaccinations hit 2 bln, new cases at four-month high

People queue up to get themselves registered for a booster dose of a vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus at a vaccination camp in New Delhi on July 15, 2022. (AFP)

A health worker inoculates a man with a booster dose of the Covishield vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus at a vaccination camp in New Delhi on July 15, 2022. (AFP)

A health worker shows covishield vaccines prior to inoculating people against the Covid-19 coronavirus at a government bus station in Hyderabad on July 15, 2022. (AFP)

• New cases rose 20,528 over the past 24 hours, the highest since Feb. 20

NEW DELHI: The Indian government’s COVID-19 vaccinations hit 2 billion on Sunday, with booster doses underway for all adults, as daily infections hit four-month high, official data showed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi extolled the vaccination milestone, celebrating the world’s largest and longest-running inoculation campaign, which began last year.
“India creates history again!” Modi said in a tweet. The prime minister has faced allegations from the opposition of mishandling the pandemic that experts claim killed millions. The government rejects the claims.
Health ministry data shows the COVID death toll at 525,709, with 49 deaths recorded overnight.
New cases rose 20,528 over the past 24 hours, the highest since Feb. 20, according to data compiled by Reuters.
The country of 1.35 billion people has lifted most COVID-related restrictions, and international travel has recovered robustly.
Some 80 percent of the inoculations have been the AstraZeneca vaccine made domestically, called Covishield. Others include domestically developed Covaxin and Corbevax, and Russia’s Sputnik V.
The federal government has been accelerating its booster campaign to avert the spread of infections, edging higher in the eastern states of Assam, West Bengal and Karnataka in the south.