India’s first-day record vaccination pace unsustainable: Experts

Experts say the rate is not sustainable, a day after India administered a record 8.6 million doses of COVID vaccine.

Health experts say India’s vaccinations over the next few weeks could fall short of the blistering pace set on the first day of a federal campaign unless it makes inroads in a vast hinterland and bridges a shortage of doses. The 8.6 million doses injected on Monday represented a record twofold jump as India kicked off free inoculation for all adults, reversing a policy for individual states and hospitals to buy vaccines for those aged 18 to 44. “This is clearly not sustainable,” Chandrakant Lahariya, an expert in public policy and health systems, told Reuters news agency.