New Delhi: India on Friday administered a record 20.53 lakh COVID-19 vaccine jabs, the highest number of vaccinations in a single day so far, said the Union Health Ministry on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the country on Saturday recorded further hike in the pandemic cases to 24,882 in the past 24 hours and the highest deaths of 140 in the month of March.
As many as 20,53,537 vaccine doses were administered on Friday, the 56th day of the vaccination drive through 30,561 sessions.
A total of 16,39,663 beneficiaries that included Health Care Workers (HCW) and Front Line Workers (FLW) were vaccinated the first dose and 4,13,874 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of the vaccine.
So far, a cumulative total of 2,82,18,457 doses of the vaccine have been administered through 4,86,314 sessions.
Eight states constituted 74 per cent of the 20,53,537 doses administered in the last 24 hours. Uttar Pradesh has topped the list with more than 3.3 lakh doses.
Ten States account for 69 per cent of the second dose vaccinations in the country. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 9.71 per cent (4,99,242) of the total second dose vaccinations.
Meanwhile, India on Saturday recorded further hike in the COVID-19 cases to 24,882 in the past 24 hours and the highest deaths of 140 in the month of March even as the active cases shot over 2 lakhs, a month after coming down to 1.35 lakh on February 14.
The health ministry is worried over a spurt in all COVID-19-related figures even as testing was increased across the country to check 8.41 lakh persons in 24 hours, the highest for the month of March, pushing the total tests to 22.58 crore.
There are currently 2,02,022 active cases in the country, 1.78 per cent of the total positive cases.
As many as 1.13 crore persons have been detected in the country with the positive symptoms, though 1.10 crore have recovered, 19,957 of them in 24 hours. The country's overall death toll is 1,58,446.
Maharashtra, one of the worst affected states, accounts for 63.57 per cent of the total active cases. 15,817 new cases reported in the last 24 hours in the state. As many as 20 states and Union Territories have less than 1,000 Active Cases.
At the global level, 11.96 crore persons were found infected with the dreaded disease, resulting in 26.52 lakh deaths and 2.07 crore active cases. India has slipped to the third position in terms of both COVID-19 infections and deaths, while Brazil clocked second, with 1,13,68,316 infections and 2,75 lakh deaths as against 1,13,33,728 infections and 1,58,446 deaths in India.
The United States tops in terms of both 2,99,93,423 infections and 26,51,728 deaths. Its deaths per million population are 1641 as against 1289 in Brazil, but comparatively India has very low deaths of 114 per million population.
(With inputs from agencies)
