Covid-19: India’s vaccination coverage crosses 157.91 crore doses

India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 157.91 crore doses with over 68 lakh shots being administered on Monday, the Union Health Ministry said.

The daily vaccination tally is likely to go up when the final numbers for the day are compiled by late night.

More than 50 lakh (50,56,277) precaution doses have been administered to healthcare and frontline workers, and to those aged 60 and above with comorbidities, the data showed.

With the latest update, the cumulative number of doses administered in the country reached 1,57,91,63,478, the health ministry data showed.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2, 2021.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1, 2021.

The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1 last year.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination has commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.

India began administering ‘precaution doses’ of COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers including personnel deployed on poll duty and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10 amid the country witnessing a spike in coronavirus infections, driven by the Omicron variant of the virus.