India surpasses 4 cr COVID-19 vaccination mark, says Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): India crossed a significant milestone in its fight against COVID-19 as the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered in the country crossed the 4 crore mark, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
A total of 4,11,55,978 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7 pm today.
These include 76,86,920 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 47,69,469 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 79,10,529 frontline workers (FLWs) have received their first dose and 23,16,922 FLWs have got their second dose. 1,53,78,622 beneficiaries are aged more than 60 years old, while 30,93,516 beneficiaries are aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.
Total 18,16,161 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm today, the 63rd day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination. Out of which 16,43,357 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 1,72,804 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of vaccine as per the provisional report.
Moreover, the number of COVID tests conducted across the country has surpassed 23 crore today. 23,03,13,163 have been conducted as on date. The cumulative national positivity rate continues to remain less than 5.00 per cent. It stands at 4.98 per cent today.
India's total active caseload has reached 2,52,364, comprising 2.20 per cent of the total positive cases. A net incline of 17,958 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.
Five States of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in the COVID daily new cases. 79.54 per cent of the new cases are from these five states.
35,871 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 16,620 (accounting for 63.21 per cent of the daily new cases). It is followed by Kerala with 1,792 while Punjab reported 1,492 new cases.
As 172 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, five states account for 84.88 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (84), followed by Punjab with 35 daily deaths and Kerala with 13 deaths in the last 24 hours. However, 18 states/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Earlier today, during the parliament session, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said there should not be any misconceptions about the two Indian vaccines being administered in the country and urged people to take the jab.
He added that India has vaccinated 3.5 to 4 crore people so far and the side effects of the vaccines have been recorded at 0.000432 per cent.
India is administering the Serum Institute's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin which have been currently approved for restricted emergency use in the country. (ANI)