India now third topmost country to give highest doses of Covid vaccine; over 58L inoculated so far

New Delhi: India has become the third topmost country in the world in terms of the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. Only the United States and the United Kingdom remain ahead of India.

The number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against Coronavirus crossed the 58 lakh-mark on the twenty-third day of the countrywide inoculation program.

The cumulative number of healthcare workers and frontline workers vaccinated against COVID-19 is 58,03,617 till 6:40 pm on Sunday, as per the provisional report. A total of 1,16,478 sessions have been held so far, it said, adding that 1,295 sessions were held till 6:40 pm on Sunday.

Out of the total cumulative coverage, 53,17,760 are healthcare workers and 4,85,857 frontline workers, the ministry said.

The ministry said 12 states in India have vaccinated more than 2 lakh beneficiaries each.

"There has been a sustained increase in the number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day," the ministry said.

The total 58,03,617 vaccinated beneficiaries include 3,79,042 from Bihar, 2,92,195 from Kerala, 3,88,476 from Karnataka, 3,42,016 from Madhya Pradesh, 4,73,480 from Maharashtra, 1,66,408 from Tamil Nadu, 1,09,589 from Delhi, 4,46,367 from Gujarat, 6,73,542 from Uttar Pradesh and 3,54,000 from West Bengal, according to the provisional report.

India's tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,08,26,363 with 12,059 new infections being reported in a day, while the daily deaths fell below 100 for the third time this month.

The death toll increased to 1,54,996 with 78 daily new fatalities, the lowest recorded after nine months, the data updated by the ministry at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,05,22,601 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.20 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 2 lakh.

There are 1,48,766 active Coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.37 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

Seventeen states and UTs have not reported any deaths in a span of 24 hours. These include Haryana, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Jharkhand, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh (UT), Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

According to ICMR, 20,13,68,378 samples have been tested up to February 6, with 6,95,789 samples being tested on Saturday.