India's daily COVID count has been recording a steady decline with Monday's (21 February) tally falling to 13,400 cases. This is sharply lower than the 3.5 lakh daily infections seen on the 20th of January. Large cities are also witnessing a steep fall in cases with Mumbai recording just 96 new infections in 24 hours.
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On the vaccination front-- India's cumulative tally has touched 176 crore doses with 59.8 percent of the population receiving two doses of the vaccine while 25.8 percent Indians are yet to be vaccinated.
The government has approved three vaccines for children so far-- latest is Biological-E's Corbevax that was cleared for the 12 to 18 age group yesterday. Zydus Cadila's Zycov-D had received a nod for the 15 to 18 age group. However Bharat Biotech's Covaxin that had received approval for the 15 to 18 age group is the only vaccine that is being used currently for vaccinating adolescents. So far 70 percent of children between 15 to 17 year old have got at least one dose of the vaccine.
1.8 crore precautionary doses have also been given so far. The government had approved administering third dose for frontline workers and senior citizens over 60 years of age. The government is yet to take a call on whether it will expand the booster dose drive to other age groups.
To discuss India's COVID-19 vaccination strategy, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Dr NK Arora, Head of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI).
Watch video for more.