Bill Gates congratulates India for achieving 'tremendous milestone' on COVID vaccine drive

American business tycoon Bill Gates described India's record-breaking one crore anti-COVID doses of vaccines as a 'tremendous milestone'. Microsoft co-founder, Gates called the success a result of 'collective efforts of the government, R&D community, vaccine manufacturers, and millions of health workers'. With one crore doses of vaccines, India on Friday recorded the highest vaccination count on a single day. 

Meanwhile, India has also crossed the 62 crore (62,09,43,580) landmark milestone as per the 7 pm provisional report on Friday. 

Uttar Pradesh also became the top state to administer over 28 lakh jabs in the last 24 hours. The month of 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. 

PM Modi congratulates on 1 crore vaccine administration milestone 

As India crossed the 1 crore milestone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate citizens on the historic feat. "Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat. Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success," tweeted PM Modi. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also termed this figure as a reflection of the strong will and immense potential of 'New India'. 

"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," said Shah in a tweet in Hindi.

WHO Chief Scientist hails India for administering one crore COVID-19 vaccines

As India administered over 1 crore vaccine doses against COVID-19 on Friday and recorded the highest vaccination that happened in a single day, WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, congratulated the country for vaccinating 50 percent of the adult population with the first dose. 

India's COVID vaccine overall coverage 

A total of 23,72,15,353 people in the age group of 18-44 years have received the first dose and 2,45,60,807 have been administered the second dose of the vaccine since the start of the third phase of the vaccination drive, according to the health ministry. However, it is important to note that the country recorded 46,759 fresh COVID-19 cases in the latest tally which is highest single-day rise in two months.