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PM Modi says free covid vaccine for all campaign progressing successfully

India last week crossed the one billion vaccination mark.

2 min read . Updated: 25 Oct 2021, 05:09 PM IST Livemint

With the temperature dipping and amid the festival season, India reported at least 14,306 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the campaign of free covid-19 vaccines for all is progressing successfully.

Launching the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission in Varanasi, Modi said, "The country has achieved a major milestone of 100 crore vaccine doses in its fight against the covid-19 epidemic."

India last week crossed the milestone of administering one billion vaccination doses. Following this, the Prime Minister had claimed India not only administered one billion vaccine doses to its citizens but has also done that free of cost. The remark drew attention as over 30% of the total vaccinations have been done by the private sector for a cost. Further, the central government has also been urging citizens capable of paying for covid-19 vaccines to go for paid vaccination at private centres so that free vaccines are available for the poor.

According to the union health ministry, more than 107.22 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states/UTs so far through the Centre (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

More than 12.75 crore (12,75,29,984) balance and unutilized covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with states/UTs to be administered.

Meanwhile, with the temperature dipping and amid the festival season, India reported at least 14,306 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. The active caseload remained below 2 lakh mark and is presently at 1,67,695, the lowest in 239 days. Active cases presently constitute 0.49% of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020, the government data showed.

India has so far conducted over 60.07 crore cumulative tests. Weekly positivity rate at 1.24% remains less than 2% for the last 31 days now. The daily positivity rate stood at 1.43%, remaining below 2% for last 21 days and below 3% for 56 consecutive days now, the health ministry.

India’s recovery rate stood at 98.18%, currently at its peak since March 2020, the government said. The recovery of 18,762 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) to 3,35,67,367, the government data showed.