50% Adults In India Have Got At Least One Vaccine Dose

India has completed administering one dose of Covid vaccine to at least 50 per cent of its adult population, as 61 crore beneficiaries have been inoculated so far under the nationwide vaccination drive that began earlier this year.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that it was an "unprecedented milestone" as he shared the information on Twitter on Tuesday.

India achieves unprecedented milestone!

% of the eligible population inoculated with the first dose of #COVID19 vaccine.

Keep it up India
Let us fight Corona pic.twitter.com/O6ufYrnUnO

- Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) August 26, 2021

"This implies that a significant number of people in India have protection against the virus," Mr Mandaviya said in another tweet that was put on his official Twitter account.

The cumulative number of vaccination coverage crossed 61 crore landmark milestone on Thursday, with nearly 80 lakh vaccine doses (79,48,439) being administered in the last 24 hours.

#IndiaFightsCorona:

More than 31.1 crore doses administered in first 67 days of the World's Largest Free-For-All Vaccination Drive launched on June 21, 2021. (As on August 27, 2021)

 But this fight isn't over yet, strengthen the country's endeavour by getting #Vaccinated pic.twitter.com/bEGCEph7Ow

- #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) August 27, 2021

India is only behind China in terms of the number of doses administered so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.

India is aiming to fully vaccinate 60% of the population by December 2021 in order to prevent a third wave of the pandemic. 10.9 million doses will have to be administered per day across the country to achieve the December target.

This morning, India added 44,658 new cases and 496 deaths related to the virus. The country's overall case load now stands at 3.26 crore, while total fatalities are at 4.36 lakh, according to the health ministry.