COVID-19: India administers 99 crore vaccine doses, closes in on 100-crore landmark

In another landmark achievement, India's cumulative vaccination coverage has crossed the historic number of 99 crores and is all set to touch the 100 crores mark by this week, informed Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday. Taking to Twitter, Union Health Minister Mandaviya informed about the same and wrote:

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare earlier today stated that a total of 98,67,69,411 vaccine doses have been administered throughout the country including 87 lakh doses administered in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the nationwide vaccination drive which commenced on January 16, 2021, has now been expanded to people from all age groups starting from healthcare workers, followed by state and central police personnel, armed force personnel, home guard, civil defence, and disaster management volunteers, municipal workers, prison staff, PRI staff, revenue workers, railway protection force, election staff and the finally the general citizens of the country.  

COVID-19 vaccinations were made available for the general public from March 21 including people above the age of 60 and also for certain above 45 with specified health conditions. Later, it was expanded to the age group of 45 and above from April 1 followed by people above 18 years from May 1.

Along with that, the Centre is also now looking forward to launching vaccines for minors and children. Earlier in the month of June, the central government's vaccination drive went through a new phase of universalisation under which it gave the approval to procure free-of-cost vaccines produced by the vaccine manufacturers to the states and union territories. 

COVID-19 in India

India on Tuesday reported 13,058 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the total number of cases to 3,40,94,373. This is the lowest number since March. Along with that, the active cases have also been the lowest in the last 227 days and stand at 1,83,118. According to the latest update by the Health Ministry, the recoveries on Tuesday stood at 19,470 followed by 164 deaths in the last 24 hours. India has been witnessing a steady dip in COVID-19 cases with positive indications from different states. With that Kerala has reported a total of 6,676 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours as per the health bulletin issued by the state government. Apart from that, 11,023 people recovered from the virus and 60 deaths. 

Meanwhile, in a new record, Maharashtra recorded zero COVID-19 deaths on Sunday for the first time since March 2020. Followed by that, it recorded 373 fresh cases on Monday followed by 4 deaths. In another remarkable achievement, Uttarakhand became the first state to administer the first dose of vaccines to all the eligible beneficiaries in the state.

Image: PTI