With over 323.6 million Indians having been given at least one vaccine shot against COVID-19, the country has surpassed the USA in the total number of doses administered to its population, according to a health ministry said on Monday.

India’s COVID vaccination drive started on 16th Jan 2021, which is a month after the USA launched its inoculation campaign on 14th December 2020.

However, since India has a much larger population, the percentage of  those vaccinated is still lower than that of the USA.

As many as 17,21,268 doses were administered in India in the last 24 hours as part of the free vaccine drive for all adults launched by the Prime Minister on June 21 to accelerate the campaign.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated all those who are driving the momentum of India’s vaccination drive. “India’s vaccination drive keeps gaining momentum! Congrats to all those who are driving this effort. Our commitment remains vaccines for all, free for all,” the PM tweeted.

COVID WAVE RECEDING

Meanwhile, India has reported 46,148 new cases in the last 24 hours which makes it the 21st day in a row when the count has fallen below the 1 lakh mark.

The country’s daily recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases of coronavirus infections for 46 consecutive days now with 58,578 recoveries being registered in the last 24 hours. The number of patients who recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours exceeded the fresh cases of infection by 12,430 during the last 24 hours.