India's COVID vaccination coverage exceeds 196.94 cr

As per the provisional reports, till 7 am on Saturday, India crossed the said mark through sessions.

COVID vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on March 16, 2022.

So far, more than 3.62 crore (3,62,20,781) adolescents have been administered with the first dose and 2,23,36,175 with the second dose of the COVID vaccine.

In the age group 15-18 years, 6,02,72,529 doses have been administered as the first dose and 4,82,78,560 doses as the second dose.

According to the Ministry, of the total doses administered so far to the health care workers (HLW's), 1,04,08,628 have received the first dose, 1,00,60,891 have received the second vaccine dose and 56,11,589 have been administered the precaution dose.

Also, 1,84,22,906 frontline workers were administered the first dose, 1,76,19,383 with the second dose and 99,40,140 with the precaution doses.

A total of 55,80,69,125 vaccine doses were administered as the first dose, 49,98,02,380 vaccine doses were given as the second dose and 24,07,273 as precaution doses in the age group 18-44 years.

Similarly, for the age group of 45-59 years, 20,34,14,801 have received the first dose, 19,30,99,268 have received the second dose and 22,93,280 have been administered the precaution doses whereas, 12,72,28,781 vaccine doses were administered as the first dose, 12,05,89,141 as second and 2,33,65,301 as precaution doses to the people over 60 years.

Meanwhile, India reported 15,940 fresh COVID cases and 20 deaths in the last 24 hours.

With this, India's active cases surge to 91,779 and the daily positivity rate is currently at 4.39 per cent.

Earlier this month, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had chaired a meeting through video conferencing with Health Ministers and senior officials of States and Union Territories (UTs) to review the progress of the vaccination exercise HarGharDastak 2.0 campaign.

Highlighting increased case positivity in some districts and States and reduced COVID-19 testing, Mandaviya had stated that increased and timely testing will enable early identification of COVID cases and help to curb the spread of the infection among the community.

He had urged States and UTs to continue and strengthen the surveillance and focus on genome sequencing for identifying new mutants/variants in the country.He stated that the five-fold strategy of Test, Track, Treat, Vaccination and Adherence to Covid Appropriate Behavior (CAB) needs to be continued and monitored by States/UTs. (ANI)