India leads US and China, administers 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in 85 days

India became the fastest country in the world to administer over 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines beating both the US and China.

New Delhi: India on Saturday (April 10, 2021) became the fastest country in the world to administer over 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in a record 85 days.

The Union Ministry announced about the milestone on April 10 which comes amid a rising uproar of shortage of COVID-19 vaccines by some states. The country is battling a second wave of the novel coronavirus infection. 

"Eight states account for 60.62 per cent of the total doses given so far in the country," the ministry said.

As of Friday, as many as 34,15,055 vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 30,06,037 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 46,207 sessions for 1st dose and 4,09,018 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of the vaccine. 

"These include 89,88,373 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 54,79,821 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 98,67,330 FLWs (1st dose), 46,59,035 FLWs (2nd dose), 3,86,53,105 1st dose beneficiaries and 15,90,388 2nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 2,82,55,044 (1st dose) and 5,82,064 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60," the ministry said in a statement.

The Centre had undertaken a country-wide innoculation drive on January 16 providing vaccines for 1 crore healthcare workers and 2 crore frontline workers in the first phase.

In the second phase, the COVID-19 vaccination drive was for people above 60 years and those aged 45 and above with comorbidities will began on March 1.

Meanwhile, India`s daily new cases rose by 1,45,384 new cases in the last 24 hours as the country's tally surged to 1,32,05,0926. Ten states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases, the ministry said.