India achieves new milestone as over 50% of adult population now vaccinated against Covid

In what comes as a new milestone, India has vaccinated 50 per cent of its adult population against the deadly coronavirus by administrating 1,04,18,707 vaccine doses in 24 hours. The total Covid vaccine doses given in the country has now exceeded 127.61 crores.

States and Union territories with more than 50 per cent of the adult population fully vaccinated include, Andaman Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttrakhand, and Tripura. 

"Congratulations India. It is a moment of great pride as over 50 per cent of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated. We will win the battle against COVID-19 together," said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on his Twitter. 

Also read | Covid: India reports 16 new cases of Omicron variant, tally rises to 21

Earlier, in October, India administered a billion vaccine doses.

India achieved this milestone at a time when the new variant of Covid, Omicron is rapidly spreading in the nation. India reported its first case of Omicron variant when a 72-year-old Zimbabwe resident travelled to Jamnagar, Gujarat and tested positive for coronavirus. The total tally for the Omicron variant in India now stands at 21. Out of these 21, eight are in Maharashtra, nine in Jaipur, one in Delhi and Gujarat each, and two in Bangalore.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health has urged the government and experts to do an efficacy check on the existing vaccines against coronavirus.

"The committee believes that timely detection and isolation of potentially infectious people is very crucial in reducing the impact of the pandemic," the panel said in its report.

(With inputs from agencies)