Covid-19: Over 7 million health workers vaccinated in 26 days

The vaccination programme began on January 16

India has become the fastest country in the world to achieve over 70 lakh (7 million) vaccinations against COVID-19 in only 26 days, whileit took 27 days for the US and 48 days for the UK to reach the same figures, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry also highlighted that 17 states and UTs have not reported any deaths in the last 24 hours.

Till February, 11, 8 AM, more than 70 lakh beneficiaries havebeen administered shots under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

The total cumulative vaccination coverage of 70,17,114 includes 57,05,228 healthcare workers (HCWs) and 13,11,886 frontline workers (FLWs), the ministry said. A total of 1,43,056 sessions have been conducted so far.

The ministry said 4,05,349 beneficiaries (HCWs- 94,890 and FLWs- 3,10,459) were vaccinated on Day-26 (February 10) across 8,308 sessions.

"The number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day has shown a progressive increase.

"Thirteen states and UTs have vaccinated over 65 per centof the registered healthcare workers (HCWs). Bihar leads with over 79 per cent of the registered HCWs vaccinated," the ministry said.

Seven states and UTs have reported less than 40 per cent vaccinations of the registered healthcare workers (HCWs). Puducherry has recorded the lowest vaccination performance of 17.5 per cent, it stated.

The ministry said 17 states and UTs have not reported any deaths in the last 24 hours.

These are Telangana, Gujarat, Assam, Haryana, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Ladakh (UT), Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, Andman and Nicobar Islands, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli.

The country has recorded 1,42,562 active cases in a span of 24 hours.The total active cases of the country now comprise merely 1.31 percent of the total infections.

"India's active cases per million population (104) is amongst the lowest in the world," the ministry underlined.

A total of 12,923 new confirmed cases were recorded in a span of 24 hours in the country and 11,764 new recoveries were registered in the same period.

The National Recovery Rate (97.26 per cent) continues to be one of the highest globally, the ministry underscored.

The total recovered cases have surged to 1,05,73,372.

"The gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing and stands at 1,04,30,810," the ministry said.

It said 83.20 per centof the newly recovered cases of COVID-19 are recorded in 6 states. Kerala has contributed the highest number to the newly recovered cases (5,745), followed by Maharashtra (2,421) and Gujarat (495).

Further,85.11 per cent of the new cases are from six states.

Kerala has reported the highest daily new cases at 5,980. It is followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with 3,451and 479 new cases, respectively.

The ministry said 108 case fatalities have been reported in a span of 24 hours. Seven states account for 79.63 per cent of these.

Maharashtra reported the maximum casualties at 30. It is followed by Kerala with 18 new daily deaths.