India administers over 2 crore Covid vaccines on PM’s birthday

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 17

India set a record on Friday by administering over two crore Covid-19 vaccine doses, in a major push to the inoculation drive on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday.

The cumulative doses administered in the country reached 2,03,68,343 at 5.27 pm, according to data on the Co-WIN portal.

The total number of doses administered in the country has crossed 78.72 crore.

Against a targeted record of 2.5 crore daily Covid doses—set for today—the government on Friday crossed 1 crore daily doses post noon for the fourth time and set a new record by 2.30 pm.

The current Indian record is of administering 1.33 crore doses a day although the one crore mark has been crossed twice earlier.

The ruling BJP and the government aimed to scale up Covid inoculation to record highs on Friday with several states ruled by the party pledging to create new highs with inoculation today.

India has already picked up vaccine pace having administered more daily doses than 18 major nations combined on the crucial indicator of daily doses.

Earlier, National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma, who oversees COWIN vaccine tracker, said, “Celebrating the relentless efforts of India’s vaccinators against Covid, we have added a ticker to show vaccinations happening in near real-time. We are currently clocking over 42,000 vaccinations/minute or 700/second.” — with PTI