In the last few months, there has been an increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the USA, Western European countries triggering new waves. However, despite an increase in the number of cases, the number of deaths has been significantly lower in all these countries with high COVID-19 vaccine coverage. On 21 October 2021, India crossed an important milestone of administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses. As of 03 November 2021, 1.07 billion doses were administered in India. Data as per the COWIN dashboard indicates that around 73.79 crore persons received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and around 33.54 crores have received both doses. This implies that around 24% of the Indian Population is fully vaccinated while 36% of the adult population is fully vaccinated. While India is next only to China in terms of the quantum of vaccine doses administered, the coverage in terms of the share of the population vaccinated is lower than in a few other countries. In the first story of this two-part series, we look at the trends of vaccination in a few select countries which have higher vaccination rates. The data is sourced from the information available on OurWorldinData.org, which has collated information from official and reliable sources of respective countries. The data is as of 31 October 2021. Nearly 58% of the US population is fully vaccinated The USA has the highest population in the world after China & India. Even in terms of the total number of COVID-19 vaccines doses administered, it ranks after these two countries. By the end of October 2021, a total of 42.2 crore vaccine doses were administered in the country. Out of its total population, 66.5% i.e., around 22.15 crores have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Around 19.24 crore population i.e., around 57% of the population have received both doses and are fully vaccinated. Since May’2021, citizens above 12 years of age are eligible for the vaccine in the USA. USA has also allowed for booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) since September’2021. As per the available information, around 1.86 crore doses of booster doses are also administered in the USA. The 10-day average suggests that the USA is administering around 9-10 lakh vaccine doses a day. The number of doses administered in a day has increased over the period. On the other hand, the trends over the past one & half months show a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases being reported in the country. Currently, around 60-70 thousand new COVID-19 cases are being reported per day (10-day average). The peak prior to this decline was around 1.7 lakh cases a day. This is part of a distinct 5th wave in the USA. The greatest daily peak was observed during the 3rd wave, around the beginning of 2021, with 2.5 – 3 lakh cases a day. The USA had vaccinated only about 2% of its population by then. The fifth wave followed a period of fall in the number of vaccines doses administered. Overall, it can be concluded that the vaccination has prevented the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic as witnessed during the previous waves. As per a few reports, the 4th & 5th wave of COVID-19 in the USA is less fatal, with most of the reported cases being of those who did not take the vaccine. In the third wave during the beginning of 2021, the daily death toll peaked at around 4.5 thousand. The peak during the 5 wave was around 2 to 2.5 thousand. Negligible difference between population receiving single-dose and those fully vaccinated in developed countries Western European countries, especially Italy, France, Spain, etc. were among the first that were severely impacted by COVID-19, outside of China. The fatality rates during the first wave were very high in these countries, which has eventually reduced in the waves that followed. The vaccination rates in these countries are higher than in most of the other countries in the world. However, the population of these countries is not as high as China, India & USA. Even in the case of developed Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, the vaccination rates are higher. Data indicates a significant trend in these countries which is that there is a negligible difference in the share of the population that received only one dose of the vaccine and the share of the population that is fully vaccinated. Higher vaccination rates in Western European countries helped reduce fatalities There has been a recurrence of new COVID-19 waves in a few of the Western European countries despite high vaccination coverage. In countries like Spain, the number of new COVID-19 cases has also been higher than earlier. But the high vaccination rates in these countries have ensured that the fatalities are minimum.