In a landmark achievement, India’s COVID vaccination coverage has surpassed 39 crore (39,10,53,156) with 32.1 lakh doses being administered on Wednesday, according to data compiled by the Health Ministry. 

Going by a figure of 90 crore for the entire adult population of the country this would mean that over 43%  Indians above 18 years of age have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The new phase of free vaccines for all which started from 21st June, with the Centre taking over procurement, has seen a marked acceleration in the number of doses being administered.

Cumulatively, 11.8 crore persons in the age group 18-44 years across 37 States/UTs have received their first dose and 41.9 lakh have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive, the health ministry said. 

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Eight States namely Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra have administered more than 50 lakh first doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the age group 18-44 years. Also, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have vaccinated more than 10 lakh beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years for the first dose of COVID vaccine.

Covid wave recedes

Meanwhile, India has reported 41,806 daily new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.  This about a tenth of the over 4 lakh fresh cases a day that was reported during the peak of the ferocious second wave in May.

Less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported since eighteen continuous days which shows that the coronavirus wave continues to recede. 

India’s active caseload today stands at 4,32,041.

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With substantially ramped up testing capacity across the country, a total of 19,43,488 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the country.

While on one side testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, a continued decline in weekly case positivity is noticed. Weekly Positivity Rate is currently at 2.21% while the Daily Positivity rate stands at 2.15% today. Daily Positivity rate has remained less than 3% for 24 consecutive days, and has remained below 5% for 38 consecutive days now.