India might be grappling with the second wave of COVID-19, but its determination to get as many people vaccinated as possible remains strong. While most countries are holding back on vaccines and components required to make the jabs, India demonstrated generosity in giving vaccines to countries in dire need. Despite that, India has emerged the world's fastest country to administer over 100 million doses of COVID vaccines.
This is a major milestone for India, despite its various challenges in the fight against COVID-19. The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that India has administered 100 million doses of COVID vaccines in 85 days. In comparison, United States took 85 days to administer 92.09 million doses and reach the 100 million mark in 89 days and China took 102 days to administer 100 million doses. At the end of 85 days, China was only at 61.42 million, a long way from India's mark.
As per the data released by the health ministry, as of 7:30 pm on Saturday, which is the 85th day of the country's vaccination drive, the total number of COVID vaccine doses stood at 10,12,84,282.
"These include 89,88,373 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 54,79,821 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 98,67,330 FLWs (1st dose), 46,59,035 FLWs (2nd dose), 3,86,53,105 1st dose beneficiaries and 15,90,388 2nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 2,82,55,044 (1st dose) and 5,82,064 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60," the ministry explained.
Coronavirus situation in India
India has reported 1,45,384 new Covid-19 cases and 794 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. India is now the fourth-worst Covid-hit country worldwide after the number of active cases rose to 10,46,631. The death toll stood at 1,68,436 the Health Ministry said.
A total of 77,567 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the number of recoveries to 1,19,90,859 with a recovery rate of 90.80 per cent. The Health Ministry said that a total of 11,73,219 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. So far, 25,52,14,803 samples have been tested.
