PM Modi's 'Tika Utsav' initiative to vaccinate maximum people to fight COVID begins today

‘Tika Utsav’ or vaccine festival, at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is all set to begin in the country from today. To be observed between April 11-14, the event aims to vaccinate the maximum number of eligible people in the country. This comes amid a steep rise in daily Covid-19 cases across the country.

The ‘Tika Utsav’ event was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday during his interaction with Chief Ministers where they discussed the current Covid-19 situation in the country and the vaccination strategy.

“Sometimes, it helps in changing the environment. April 11 is the birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule and April 14 is the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb. Can we organise a 'Tika Utsav: or vaccine festival and create an atmosphere of 'Tika Utsav'?" PM Modi had said.

Several states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Goa are encouraging people to participate in the vaccination event.

India’s vaccine drive

On April 1, India started vaccination of people above 45 years and on Saturday the vaccination drive of the country crossed 100 million doses. Reports suggest that India has picked up the pace of its immunisation campaign. Last week, 3.8 million shots had been administered every single day on average, while 1.7 million doses (on average) were administered across the country in the final week of March.

The Prime Minister's Office also tweeted a chart showing India as the fastest country to reach this vaccination milestone.

While some states have flagged a "shortage" of vaccine doses, the Centre stated that there is no shortage of vaccines and a sufficient quantity of the jabs have been allocated to all the states. On Friday night, Maharashtra which is struggling to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases received 4.59 lakh doses of fresh stock. 

Zero wastage of vaccine

PM Modi in meeting with Chief Ministers also emphasized on zero wastage of vaccine. “We should vaccinate maximum eligible people through a special campaign and decide on zero wastage. If there is zero wastage in four days during 'Tika Utsav', it will also increase our vaccination capacity," mentioned PM Modi.

India Covid-19 cases

In last 24 hours, India recorded 1,45,384 fresh Covid-19 cases taking country’s total tally to 1,32,05,926. The Health Ministry informed that ten states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Rajasthan continue to report very high rise in daily cases.