Uttar Pradesh has set a new record of administering more than 8 lakh doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The state provided 8.1 lakh doses on Tuesday across 8,510 sessions in all 75 districts. Uttar Pradesh is the country’s most populous state.

Tuesday’s 8.1 lakh doses surpassed Monday’s 7.25 lakh inoculations when the Centre’s revised vaccination policy came into effect.

Accordingly, the state accounted for nearly 15 per cent of the total doses administered in the country. A total of 53.4 lakh doses were given in the country on Tuesday, 40 per cent less than Monday’s record 88 lakh doses.

“On the back of 7.25L vaccinations on 21 June, UP vaccinates 8.1L persons in last 24 hours. Momentum picking up. Good going CM Yogi Adityanath,” BL Santosh, party’s national general secretary (organisation), tweeted.

The state has so far administered a total of 2.84 doses. This includes 2.32 crore first-timers and over 41 lakh fully vaccinated.

The state has set a target to administer 1 crore doses in June.

Meanwhile, the Centre has said that it is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding scope of the nationwide vaccination drive. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

During May 2021, more than 7.9 crore vaccines were available for the nationwide COVID19 vaccination exercise. These were ramped up to 11.78 crore in June. These include the free supply of vaccines to states and UTs from the Government of India, those directly procured by the states and UTs and those directly procured by the private hospitals, the ministry said.

According to the revised guidelines, vaccine doses provided free of cost by the Centre will be allocated to states and UTs based on criteria such as population, disease burden and the progress of vaccination, and all above the age of 18 will be eligible for the free jabs. Any wastage of vaccine will affect the allocation negatively.

The Centre will procure 75 percent of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country. Domestic vaccine manufacturers are given the option to also provide vaccines directly to private hospitals. This would be restricted to 25 percent of their monthly production.