India vaccinates 63 lakh healthcare workers in 24 days, fastest in the world

New Delhi: Union Health Ministry has said that over 63 lakh 10 thousand beneficiaries have received COVID-19 vaccines so far since the launch of the vaccination drive on 16th of January this year.

Addressing the media, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that these beneficiaries include Health care workers and Frontline workers who were administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

He also informed, administering a second dose to the beneficiaries will start from 13th of February. He said, India is the fastest country to reach 6 million vaccination in just 24 days while USA took 26 days and UK took 46 days to reach this level.

Mr Bhushan said that 12 states and UTs have vaccinated more than 65 per cent of the registered Health care workers. He said, as per the feedback received from over seven lakh 75 thousand people, it was found that more than 97 per cent people are satisfied with overall vaccination experience.

He said, the active cases of COVID-19 is continuously declining and it has come down to below 1.50 lakhs. He mentioned that from the first week of January 2021, the average death per day was 211, but now the numbers are at 96 in the country and there is also a 55 per cent decline in average daily death in the last five weeks.

The Health Secretary added that 15 States and Union Territories have reported no new deaths in the past 24 hours while seven States and UTs reported no new deaths in the last three weeks.

NITI Aayog Member Dr V K Paul said that COVID-19 cases are continuously declining and the pandemic situation is satisfactory. He said, it is also a matter of satisfaction that death caused due to COVID-19 is also on a decline and less than 100 deaths are being reported. He also mentioned that no new death has been reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours.