Covaxin booster shot enhances Covid vaccine effectiveness against Delta, Omicron variants: ICMR studyNew Delhi, July 17: India crossed the milestone of administering 200 crore (2 billion) COVID-19 vaccine doses on Sunday. The country achieved the feat in 17 months since the first coronavirus jab was given on January 16, 2021.
"It's a matter of pride for us that India has crossed 2 Billion doses of #COVID19 vaccine administered so far. I congratulate the healthcare workers and the citizens on this achievement," said Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.
The total vaccination on Saturday reached 1.99 billion doses with 1.01 billion first doses, 925 million second doses and 56.23 million precautionary doses administered.
The data showed that 82 per cent of adolescents aged 15 to 18 years have also been vaccinated with the first dose since the vaccination for this age group began on January 3 while 68 per cent have got both the first and second dose. Eighty one per cent of those aged 12-14 years have taken the first dose while 56 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The top five states where highest number of doses have been administered are Uttar Pradesh (34,41,93,641), Maharashtra (17,05,59,447), West Bengal (14,40,33,794), Bihar (13,98,52,042) and Madhya Pradesh (12,13,15,911) till 7 am on Sunday.
It took 277 days to reach the earlier milestone of 100 crore doses. On September 17 last year, 2.5 crore vaccine doses were administered in a single day, the highest so far.
Meanwhile, the health ministry has also begun a 75-day special drive to administer free precaution doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at government vaccination centres to all adults from July 15.
The Union Health Ministry last week reduced the gap between the second and precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccine for all beneficiaries from nine to six months. This followed a recommendation from the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI).
To accelerate the pace of vaccination and encourage booster shots, the government initiated the second round of the 'Har Ghar Dastak campaign 2.0' across states and UTs on June 1. The two-month programme is currently underway. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase.
Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions. India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1 last year.
The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from May 1 last year. The next phase of vaccination commenced on January 3 for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.
India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10. The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16 and also removed the comorbidity clause, making all people aged above 60 eligible for the precaution dose of the Covid vaccine.