India has 17.7% of world population, gave 15% of global jabs; China, EU, US all fare better | India News

BENGALURU: That India has managed to administer more than 1 billion doses of vaccines is no small feat, and is indicative of the fact that despite its huge population, it has managed to procure and provide vaccines for a large number of people.
However, to put things in perspective, the achievement has to be seen in comparison with global vaccination coverage and population: As per the UN Population Division, India’s share of global population is 17.7%, while data from Our World in Data shows India’s share in global coronavirus inoculations as of October 25 to be 14.8%.
Comparatively, China, with 2.25 billion doses accounts for nearly a third (32.7%) of all global coronavirus vaccine doses, which is more than double than India. And, in world population, China’s share is just 18.3%, which is only slightly more than that of India’s.

While China exceeds its share of the world population by almost 80%, the US and the European Union have also given out more doses than their “fair share”, but they are only exceeding their rates by around 40% to 50%, Statista, a global company specialising in market and consumer data, observes.
It adds that the starkest examples of populations underserved by coronavirus vaccines can be found on the African continent. While 17.4% of the world population lives there, the continent accounts for less than 3% of coronavirus vaccine doses given globally.
“With one billion doses given out, technically 35% of Indians could be fully vaccinated, but due to the longer wait time with the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine, many people are still waiting for their second dose. The rate of the fully vaccinated in the country is currently approaching 22%,” Statista notes.
If a country had given out the same amount of doses than its share of the world population, technically around 50% of its inhabitants could be fully vaccinated. With double the doses, a country could technically fully vaccinate its whole population. This is reflected in rates of full vaccination of between 55% 65% in the United States and the European Union and of upwards of 80% in China.
As of 12pm on October 27, India had administered 1.03 billion doses of vaccines — 723 million first doses and 313 million second doses. Nearly nine out of 10 of these doses were that of Covishield, while less than half of the total doses have been administered to women.