The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that India is leading in administering COVID-19 vaccines in the world. So far India has administered around 32 crore vaccine doses that too in just 163 days as compared to the United States which took 193 days to reach the same benchmark.
Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said that a total of 27.27crore people have been covered with the first dose of vaccine and 5.84 crore with the second dose of vaccine.
Talking about covid-19 situation, he said that there has been a continuous decline in cases since India reported a peak, including a progressive decrease in cases in districts. The current recovery rate of India stands at 96.9%.
More than 52.76 lakh vaccine doses were administered in India on June 28, the Union Health Ministry's latest report suggested. With that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 32.90 crore.
On the 164th day of the vaccination drive on June 28, 41.24 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 11.52 lakh people were given their second dose.
The government has revised the gap between the two doses for the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, to 12-16 weeks. However, the interval for the second dose of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin remains unchanged.
From April 1, vaccination was opened for everyone above the age of 45 with or without comorbidities. India rolled out the third phase of its COVID-19 vaccination drive for those in the 18-44 age group on May 1.
The United States, meanwhile, has administered 32,33,27,328 doses of the vaccine since vaccinations started on December 8. The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France, have administered 7,67,74,990, 7,14,37,514, 4,96,50,721 and 5,24,57,288 doses respectively.
Following the landmark achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated all those who are driving the momentum of India's vaccination drive.
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