India becomes first nation to vaccinate 122 million in 92 days: Govt

New Delhi: India achieved the milestone of vaccinating close to 122 million people against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in a span of 92 days on Sunday, according to data released by the Union ministry for health and family welfare.

The United States achieved a similar feat in 97 days while China achieved a similar feat in 108 days, the health ministry also said. India vaccinated more than 2.6 million people in the last 24 hours pushing the tally of vaccinated people to 122,622,590 people, it added.

The states, which have recorded a daily surge in the number of cases and deaths, also reported high numbers of people vaccinated.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh accounted for 36% of the doses administered. All of these states over the past week reported their highest single-day surges in Covid-19 cases since the onset of the pandemic and the rise in the pace of the vaccination could lead to a curb in infections. These four states along with West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala accounted for 59.5% of the total doses administered, the government said.

India began its vaccination drive on January 16 initially administering jabs to healthcare and frontline workers across government and private sectors. Sanitation workers, defence personnel, police and other paramilitary forces were also inoculated in Phase I.

The second phase of Covid-19 vaccination programme was launched on March 1 when the elderly population over 60 years of age and people aged 45 and above with comorbid conditions were allowed to be vaccinated. On April 1, India allowed everyone above the age of 45 to get vaccinated irrespective of any comorbidities.

Maharashtra, Delhi and Chhattisgarh were among the top three states and Union territories that reported the highest number of deaths in the last 24 hours. India reported 1,501 fresh fatalities on Sunday. Seven other states and Union territories other than these three recorded a surge in the number of deaths over the past 24 hours. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan reported a surge in deaths. These 10 states accounted for 82.94% of the deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Ten states and Union territories – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan – accounted for 79% of the new cases reported in the last 24 hours. Sixteen states and Union Territories – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan – are witnessing an upward trajectory in daily new cases. The daily positivity rate in the nation doubled from 8.00% to 16.69% in the last 12 days while the weekly positivity numbers increased from 3.05% to 13.54% in the last month.

Chhattisgarh with 30.38% reported the highest weekly positivity rate among all the states. India currently has 1.8 million active cases which account for 12% of the total positive cases reported in the country. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala account for 65.02% of these cases while Maharashtra alone accounts for 38.09% of the total active caseload in the country.

India’s recovery rate dropped to 86.62% with the nation reporting 138,423 recoveries taking the tally of recovered people to 12,809,643 on Sunday. (Agency)