Nearly 4.5 million (44,49,552) beneficiaries have been administered shots of coronavirus vaccine under the countrywide exercise till Thursday morning.
In a span of 24 hours, 3,10,604 people were vaccinated across 8,041 sessions. 84,617 sessions have been conducted so far, the Union Health Ministry said today.
"India has achieved a significant achievement in its fight against the global pandemic," the ministry highlighted.
"India has been the fastest country to achieve 4 million COVID19 vaccinations in just 18 days. Many other countries have had a head start of almost 65 days. India launched the countrywide COVID19 vaccination drive on 16th Jan 2021," it added.
Meanwhile, India has reached a total of 1,07,90,183 coronavirus cases, with 12,899 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Thursday.
The country has recorded 17,824 discharges and 107 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharges and death toll to 1,04,80,455 and 1,54,703.
The national coronavirus recovery rate is now at 97.13%, while the Covid-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.43%.
The total number of active coronavirus cases stands at 1,55,025, which comprise 1.44% of the total caseload, as per the Union Health Ministry.
So far, the central government has released ₹6,309.90 crore to the states/UTs under the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package during 2020-21.
The government has also procured 38,867 ventilators at a cost of ₹1,850.76 crore since January 2020 till date, according to the union health ministry on Tuesday.
Highlighting the expenditure incurred on Covid-19 pandemic related efforts, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, said that during the Financial Year 2019-20, ₹11,13.21 crore was also released to the states/UTs under National Health Mission towards management and containment of Covid-19.
The government procured 178.14 lakh PPE coveralls at a cost of ₹1,540.34 crore, 432.40 lakh N-95 masks for ₹339.47 crore, 173 lakh goggles for ₹369.16 crore and 242.10 lakh gloves for ₹31.75 crore, respectively, Choubey told Rajya Sabha.
