Uttar Pradesh has the highest vaccine beneficiaries, followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan. (File)
More than 57 lakh healthcare and frontline workers have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country till now, making India only the third country in the world with the highest doses of vaccination, the Health ministry said today. Only the United States and the United Kingdom remain ahead of India, it said.
So far 57,75,322 beneficiaries - 53,04,546 healthcare workers and 4,70,776 frontline workers - have taken vaccine jabs in 1,15,178 sessions, the government said.
3,58,473 beneficiaries were vaccinated in 8,875 sessions yesterday.
The highest number of 6,73,542 beneficiaries are from Uttar Pradesh, followed by4,73,480 in Maharashtra and 4,59,652 in Rajasthan. Twelve states have vaccinated more than two lakh beneficiaries each, the government said.
The Centre has asked states to improve the percentage coverage of vaccinated beneficiaries and directed that they must schedule all healthcare workers for vaccination at least once before February 20.
"States/ UTs were advised to ensure regular review meetings of the State, District and Block Task Force to assess the emerging challenges, understand the ground issues and promptly address them at the appropriate levels," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.
"Similarly, all frontline workers must be scheduled for vaccination at least once before March 6, 2021 and immediately thereafter organize mop-up rounds for them. The failure of potential beneficiaries to get vaccinated in the mop-up round would automatically push them to the age-appropriate vaccination category. The second dose of the vaccine is also scheduled to start from February 13, 2021 for people who were vaccinated on January 16, 2021," it added.
This morning, India reported 12,059 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,08,26,363. Seventy-eight people lost their lives during the period, the ministry said, adding that this is third time this month that the number of fatalities have fallen below 100.
There are 1,48,766 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.37 per cent of the total caseload, according to the government.