'70% of India's adult population given 1st dose of Covid vaccine'

New Delhi: Seventy percent of India's adult population has been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday, as the total doses given across the country crossed 91 crore.

According to officials, 25 percent of the adult population has been administered both doses of the vaccine.

"Strong Nation, Rapid Vaccination: India has administered the first dose of #COVID19 vaccine on 70% of the population.

"Under PM @NarendraModiji, India is achieving new landmarks in the fight against the pandemic. Keep it up India, let us fight Corona," the minister said in a tweet.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country under the nationwide anti-Coronavirus inoculation drive crossed 91 crore on Monday.

More than 5.67 crore (5,67,37,905) balance and unutilised vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs.

Daily cases in the country remained below 30,000 for the 10th straight day with 20,799 fresh infections recorded in a single day, while the active cases declined to 2,64,458, the lowest in 200 days, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Monday.

With the fresh cases, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,38,34,702 while the death toll climbed to 4,48,997 with 180 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,31,21,247 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

The active cases comprise 0.78 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.89 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 6,099 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.