- Six cities in India account for the bulk of the 96 million vaccinations that the country had distributed up till April 12.
- Four of these cities are located in Maharashtra, where urban centres account for a bulk of the state’s vaccines.
- Meanwhile, the positivity rate in other states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is increasing. And they all have one thing in common — the Kumbh Mela.
Nagpur, Thane, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai got the bulk of the 96 million vaccinations that were done up till April 12. Four of them are in Maharashtra — which has reported the lion's share of total cases in India — therefore it makes sense that the majority of vaccines would go to the state.
Meanwhile, the positivity rate is increasing in other states. Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh are among the top 10 states accounting for 79% of the increase in new cases.
And, the pressure is only going to grow with one of the common denominators between these states being the fact that they had large swathes of their population at the Kumbh Mela. More than three million Hindu devotees were recorded at the Indian city of Haridwar to celebrate one of the most auspicious days of the two month long festival.
People were seen ignoring COVID-19 appropriate behaviour — like wearing a mask and keeping distance — as hundreds of thousands of attendees took a dip in the Ganges. Over 1,700 have tested positive at the Kumbh Mela over the span of five days.
To address the jump in the demand for COVID-19 vaccines as India faces its second wave of infections, the government has authorised other vaccines to enter the arena — like Russian-developed Sputnik V.
India reported a new record high of 168,912 new COVID-19 cases on April 12. Overall, the country has more than 14 million confirmed cases making it the second worst-hit nation in the world.
Here’s a look at how the distribution of vaccines has happened so far and where the gaps are across states in India: