Vaccination drive: More than 7.2 million healthcare workers inoculated

For frontline workers, a total of 3,611,670 vaccinations has been done till February 20, the health ministry also said.

India has administered more than 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines as of Saturday, and out of this, 7,226,653 health workers have been immunised so far, the Union health ministry said. In its daily briefing, the ministry said that first dose has been given to 6,352,713 beneficiaries, while the corresponding figure for the second jab stands at 873,940. The total number of vaccination doses administered till 6 pm of February 20 stands at 10,838,323, it said.

After the United States and the United Kingdom, India is at the third spot in terms of immunising the number of people. (ANI)

For frontline workers, a total of 3,611,670 vaccinations has been done till February 20, the health ministry also said.

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The immunisation drive began on January 16 in the country and since then the process has been going on at fastest pace in the world. The second dose of Covid-19 vaccination started on February 13 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the first dose. Vaccination of the frontline workers started on February 2.

After the United States and the United Kingdom, India is at the third spot in terms of immunising the number of people.

The drugs regulatory body of India has approved two vaccines - Covishield manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Covaxin developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.

Meanwhile, five states - Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh - reported a spike in the daily covid-19 infections triggering fears of a second wave. The country added 13,993 new Covid-19 cases to the overall tally on Saturday which now stands at 10,977,387. The nationwide death toll has increased to 156,212 with the loss of 101 more lives due to the virus in the last 24 hours, as per the health ministry's update.

Maharashtra has exhibited a spike in the number of daily new cases in the past week, accounting for the highest number of daily new cases in the country today. For the two consecutive days now, the state has registered more than 6,000 cases which is the highest daily spike in more than three months.