A day after India announced that it surpassed the United States in terms of the number of people vaccinated against Covid-19, the Union health ministry officials said on Tuesday that the country achieved the milestone faster than the US.
"India has taken a distinct lead in total vaccine doses administered in the world. India surpassed the US and took 163 days to reach the 32 crore benchmark. The US took 193 days," the Union health ministry official said in a weekly press briefing.
Giving a break-down, health ministry's joint secretary Lav Agarwal said, "A total of 27.27crore people covered with the first dose of vaccine and 5.84 crore people covered with the second dose of vaccine."
From May 1 to June 24, 56% of the Covid-19 vaccine doses were given in rural areas, 44% in urban areas, officials said.
Confirming the downfall of India's deadly second wave, the joint secretary said India's recovery rate has been logged at 96.9%.
"There has been a continuous decline in cases since India reported a peak, including a progressive decrease in cases in districts," Agarwal said.
{{/usCountry}}"There has been a continuous decline in cases since India reported a peak, including a progressive decrease in cases in districts," Agarwal said.
{{/usCountry}}The health ministry officials also confirmed approval for Moderna Covid-19 vaccine by India's drug controller DCGI. "New drug permission has been granted to Moderna, the first internationally developed vaccine. This new drug permission is for restricted use. There are four vaccines now Covaxin, Covishield, SputnikV and Moderna," health secretary VK Paul said.
India will soon close the deal on Pfizer as well, Paul said.