As of Friday morning, a little over 4.8 crore doses had been administered for a population of over 80 crore in this age group. That is a considerable increase over the 78 lakh that had been administered as of July 14 – 96 days after the start of precaution doses on April 10 – but even at the current pace, less than a fifth of the 18-59 age group would have received booster shots by the end of the drive in the last week of September.
While all states have seen an increase in the pace since July 15 (see graphic), states that have seen the highest average number of doses per day over this period have been West Bengal (2 lakh), Gujarat (2 lakh), UP (1.7 lakh) and MP (1.6 lakh).
Despite the high absolute number of booster doses per day for the 18-59 age group, Uttar Pradesh is actually a laggard in terms of its coverage with barely 3.3% or roughly one in thirty covered. The only states to have covered over 10% of this age group with booster shots are Himachal Pradesh (13.2), Chhattisgarh (12.8), Gujarat (12.2) and Delhi (10.3).
The lowest coverage is in Punjab and Jharkhand where not even 2% of this age group have received precaution doses yet. Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are among the others that are well below the national average.
