Cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India crosses 194 crore: Govt

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 194 crore on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.

More than 10 lakh vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Saturday, it said. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night.

A total of 1,04,295 precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered to those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Saturday, taking the total number of precaution doses given in this age-group to 26,28,276 so far, according to the health ministry data.

So far, 3.44 crore children in the age group of 12-14 years and 5.96 crore adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years have been administered the first dose of the vaccine.

The countrywide COVID-19 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 co-morbid conditions.

Vaccination for all those aged more than 45 years began on April 1 last year. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years to be inoculated against Covid from May 1 last year.

Inoculation of adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years commenced on January 3.

India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with co-morbidities from January 10.

The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16 and also removed the co-morbidity clause, making all people aged above 60 eligible for the precaution dose of Covid vaccines.

India on April 10 began administering precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccines to all aged above 18 years.