Shillong, June 16: Meghalaya has inoculated around 50,000 people in just 5 days, as the state has ramped up its vaccination drive in hopes to inoculate its entire population with at least one dose of the vaccine within 2 months.

Meghalaya has administered 5,44,645 vaccines to date, of which 4,69,815 have received first dose and 74,830 have received both doses.

On Wednesday alone, approximately 14,000 doses were administered. The current drive is expected to be further augmented as the State’s target is to immunize 30,000 people daily but has not even come close to half that mark.

Joint Secretary & Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM), Meghalaya, Ram Kumar said there are approximately 20 lakh people above of the age of 18 years in the state. So far, more than 4 lakh of those have been administered the first dose of vaccine, with 16 lakh still remaining.

If the state can achieve the daily target of 30,000, almost the whole of Meghalaya would be inoculated by atleast one dose of vaccine within 40-50 days.

He said the State has enough stocks of the vaccine to administer 30,000 doses daily and with additional batches to arrive the amped-up vaccination drive can go on for 2-3 months. However, meeting the target is not easy as it depends on the number of people that turn up for the jab, and the people in rural areas are seemingly reluctant to come forward.