WHO chief scientist lauds India for administering 1cr COVID-19 vaccines in 24hrs

In a major milestone achievement, India administered over 1 crore vaccine doses against COVID-19 on Friday until 10 pm, the highest vaccination that happened in a single day. Appreciating India's vaccination drive, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), congratulated the country for vaccinating 50 percent of the adult population with the first dose. 

Dr Soumya Swaminathan tweeted, "India achieves 50% coverage (at least one dose) of adult populn - > 620 million doses administered, 10 million in the past day! Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved. Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!"

Speaking on India's vaccination drive progress, Dr NK Arora, Chief of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) said it is a matter of pride for the Indian health system. He further said that the country hopes to vaccinate 1.25 crore in a single day soon.

The country must provide 1 crore jabs every day till December 31 in order to achieve complete vaccination by the end of this year. 

PM Modi hails India's vaccination drive

On Friday, August 27, India administered record-breaking one-crore doses of vaccines. Uttar Pradesh became the top state to administer over 28 lakh jabs in the last 24 hours. With this, August becomes India’s biggest inoculation month crossing 15 crore doses so far. The highest so far was July with 13.45 crore doses administered. 

Congratulating the citizens on the historic feat, PM Modi tweeted, "Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat. Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success'.

While Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted, "With a visionary leadership, how a country can set an example to the whole world in fighting a successful battle against COVID-19, this is what Narendra Modi-led 'New India' has shown to the world," 

COVID situation in India

To date, India has reported a total of 3.26 crore COVID cases with 4.37 lakh deaths. The country has administered a total of 62,21,39,498 COVID vaccine doses across 37,423 vaccination sites. 

(With ANi input)

(Image credit: AP)