Over 18.14 crores unutilised COVID vaccine doses still available with states/UTs: Centre

India has so far administered 149.66 crore doses of COVID vaccination.

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Friday (January 7) said that the States/Union Territories still have over 18.14 crore unutilized COVID-19 vaccine doses available with them to be administered. According to the ministry’s official statement, the states were given more than 154.32 crore vaccines for inoculation.

India, which has started the world’s largest vaccine drive on January 16, 2021, has so far administered 149.66 crore doses of COVID vaccination with over 85 lakh being given in the last 24 hours.

More than 154.32 crores vaccine doses were provided to States/UTs so far. Over 18.14 crores balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered: Union Health Ministry

— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2022

"India`s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 149.57 crore (1,49,57,01,483) today. More than 85 lakh (85,32,595) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm today," Union Health Minister said in a release.

Meanwhile, India on Friday reported 1,17,100 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the daily positivity rate in the country to 7.74 per cent, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in its daily bulletin.

With this, the country's COVID-19 case tally has gone up to 3,52,26,386.

According to Health Ministry, the country has so far reported 3,007 cases of Omicron variant of teh coronavirus. Out of which 1,199 have been recovered.

Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of Omicron cases (876), followed by Delhi (465) and Karnataka (333).

The country also reported 302 new fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,83,178.

India conducted 15,13,377 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours, and so far the country has conducted 68,68,19,128 tests as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data.

(With agency inputs)