India reaches COVID-19 vaccination milestone; over 60 crore doses administered

In a major achievement by the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, India has crossed the 60 crore COVID vaccine doses mark with the last 10 crore doses being administered in record 19 days, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed. "Under PM Narendra Modi Ji's #SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine initiative, India crossed the 60 crore vaccination mark. Congratulations everyone!" he tweeted.

India's COVID vaccination drive in numbers:

Mandaviya informed that India took 85 days for administering the first 10 crore vaccines, 45 days to touch the 20 crore mark, 29 days to reach 30 crore, 24 days to reach 40 crore and 20 days to touch the half-century mark. To reach the 60 crore mark, the country only took 19 days.

As per the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday morning, 44,09,540 individuals received the first dose in the past 24 hours while 17,81,390 persons received the second dose. All over, 46,0802,783 and 13,47,01,810 people have received first and second doses across the country respectively. Of the total doses administered, over 244 million vaccines have been given to the 18-44 years age group (As of 25 August 2021, 8 AM).

COVID-19 cases in India

As per the latest update by the Centre, India reported 37,593 fresh COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The maximum cases were reported in Kerala (24,296), followed by Maharashtra (4,355), Tamil Nadu (1,585) and Karnataka (1,259). Of the new cases, Kerala alone is liable for 64.63% of new cases. Meanwhile, the maximum casualties were reported in Maharashtra (288). Kerala also registered 173 new COVID-19 deaths. 

In the past 24 hours, over 34,000 coronavirus patients recovered from the illness, taking the recovery tally to 3,17,54,281. The country's recovery rate also stood at 97.67%. As of 8 am on Wednesday, the active COVID-19 caseload stood at 3,22,327. In the past 24 hours, active cases rose by 2,776. A total of 17,92,755 samples were also tested in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Tuesday said that India might be entering the endemicity stage of COVID-19 where there is a low or moderate level transmission with no exponential growth.