India fastest to inoculate 3 million people, over 9 lakh vaccinated in 2 days

India achieved yet another milestone on Saturday when it crossed a milestone of inoculating more than three million healthcare and frontline workers in the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive.

It has been just over two weeks since the pan-India vaccination drive began. A total of 3,706,157 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till now and the health ministry highlighted that India is the fastest country to reach not only one million target but also two and three million targets. "Several other countries which have had a head start,some as much as 40-50 days, have taken a longer time to reach these targets," it added.

The nationwide vaccination drive began on January 16. In 10 days (till January 26), it had given vaccine shots to more than two million people.

On Thursday and Friday, nearly 933,000 beneficiaries were administered vaccine doses across all states and union territories. On Saturday, 206,130 beneficiaries were inoculated and 71 adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) were reported.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had on Thursday advised all states and UTs to increase the percentage coverage of vaccine beneficiaries and optimise sessions per day. "While some States and UTs have more than 50 per cent coverage, they were all advised to improve the percentage coverage of vaccinated beneficiaries as there are many States and UTs that need to improve their performance on this parameter," an official statement read.