India / Over 10 lakh people get Covid-19 vaccine in a day for the 1st time in India

New Delhi: In a first, India, on Thursday vaccinated one million people in a single day. The Union Health Ministry took to Twitter and announced the feat. "Vaccinations today cross 1-million mark. Cumulative vaccination coverage is more than 1.77 cr," the ministry said in a tweet.

According to a provisional report till 7 pm on Thursday, 1.77 crore vaccine doses have been given so far. Of these, over 68.38 lakh are healthcare workers (HCW) who have taken the first dose. 30.82 lakh workers have taken the second dose. Similarly, 60.22 lakh frontline workers (FLW) have taken the first dose, while 54.177 frontline workers have taken the second dose, the ministry said.

"A total of 10,93,954 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm on Thursday, the forty-eighth day of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. Out of which, 8,34,141 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 2,59,813 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of vaccine as per the provisional report," the ministry said.

India's COVID-19 vaccine drive so far

According to the ministry, 4,93,999 of these people are aged over 60 years and 75,147 individuals are aged between 45-60 with specified comorbidities. 

The COVID-19 vaccination drive began in India on January 16, with healthcare workers getting vaccinated in the first phase. In the second phase, frontline workers began getting vaccinations. From March 1, vaccinations began for those above 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

In January, the government gave a go-ahead to two vaccines, namely Covaxin, developed by state-owned Bharat Biotech and Covishield by Serum Institute of India. Earlier this week, PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and others took doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.