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Covid-19: Over 3.15 crore vaccine doses administered in India, says govt
The announcement by the Union Ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) on Monday evening came just hours before India completes two months of its vaccine drive against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Union Ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) announced on Monday that India has administered more than 3.15 crore doses of vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
"India crosses the milestone of 3.15 crore Covid-19 vaccinations," the health ministry tweeted on Monday evening, just hours before India completes two months of its vaccine drive against the pandemic. India launched its immunisation drive against the viral infection on January 16.
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Healthcare and frontline workers were vaccinated in the first phase of the drive. More than 7.3 million healthcare workers have received the first dose of the vaccine while over 4.3 million have received the second dose as of Monday morning, according to the health ministry. The corresponding figures for frontline workers, as per the ministry, stand at more than 7.3 million and 1.1 million respectively.
India launched the second phase of its vaccination drive on March 1, shifting the focus to the elderly (aged 60 years and above) and people with specific comorbidities in the age bracket of 45-59. More than 8.2 million people aged 60 years and above have been administered the first jab of the Covid-19 vaccine, while 1.4 million people with comorbidities, too, have received the first dose, the health ministry data showed.
Overall, as of Monday morning, the country had administered more than 2.99 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses to the beneficiaries through more than 5.13 lakh sessions, as per the provisional report of the health ministry.
On January 2, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) announced it had approved two vaccines for the country’s immunisation programme. One of these is the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being manufactured in India as Covishield by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII). The other, Covaxin, is the country’s first home-made shot against the disease as it has been developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited.
