India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 196-cr mark

India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the 196 crore (196,13,24,182) mark on Saturday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed.

The Health Minister in its official press release mentioned that more than 11 lakh (11,61,176) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm today.

The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.

The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country. The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination started on January 16, 2021. The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on June 21, 2021.

As per the Ministry, of the total doses administered so far to the health care workers (HLW's), 1,04,08,261 have received the first dose, 1,00,55,634 have received the second vaccine dose and 55,20,276 have been administered the precaution dose.

Also, 1,84,21,883 frontline workers were administered the first dose, 1,76,10,992 with the second dose and 9,5,91,277 with the precaution doses.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in India crossed the 13,000-mark for the first time after more than three months, with the country reporting 13,216 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, according to Union Health Ministry data.

After a gap of three months, the country witnessed an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases as the country has been crossing the 12,000- mark for the past two days. India logged 12,213 cases on Thursday, followed by 12,847 cases on Friday.

( With inputs from ANI )

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