India administers over 1 cr Covid vaccine doses in single day

New Delhi: India administered more than one crore COVID-19 vaccine doses on Friday, the highest ever in a day, the Union Health Ministry said.

According to the CoWIN portal, the COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the country has crossed 62,17,06,882 doses.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed those behind the vaccination drive and also praised people getting inoculated.

"Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat. Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success," he tweeted.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in a tweet, said, "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas... This is the same effort by which the country has crossed the figure of more than 1 crore vaccines in one day. This is the result of tireless work of health workers and PM Narendra Modi."

According to the CoWIN portal, 1,00,64,032 jabs were administered on Friday.

On August 17, over 88 lakh doses of the vaccine were administered across the country. A total of 30,85,06,160 people in the age group of 18-44 years have received vaccine doses while 23,98,99,849 beneficiaries in the age group of over 45 years have received jabs, according to the health ministry.

With 44,658 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 3,26,03,188, while the active cases rose to 3,44,899.

The death toll climbed to 4,36,861 with 496 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 1.03 per cent of the total infections while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.63 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 11,174 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 18,24,931 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 51,49,54,309. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.45 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 32 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.10 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 63 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,18,21,428 and the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.