India crosses 100cr mark in Covid-19 vaccination drive

India today reached a major milestone in its Covid-19 vaccination drive as the number of doses administered across the country crossed the 100 crore (one billion) mark.

The feat milestone was achieved this morning, just nine months after the country launched the drive on January 16 with two vaccines -- Covishield and indigenous Covaxin.

India is the second country after neighbour China, to have administered 100 crore doses. China achieved the feat in June, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Vinod K Paul, who heads India's Covid-19 national task force, said 75 percent of India's estimated 94 crore adult population has taken the first dose, 25 percent of adults who are eligible to receive free vaccination are still unvaccinated.

During its vaccination drive, India also used drones for the first time to deliver vaccines to remotest corners of the country.

"Congratulations India! This is the result of the leadership of our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Indian Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted.

The Indian government has planned a number of events to mark the occasion, including launching of a song by popular singer Kailash Kher and display of the country's largest tricolour at the Red Fort in Delhi.

An official statement said the first 10 crore (100 million) doses were administered in just 85 days of the launch of the vaccination drive.

As the number of vaccine doses administered increased, India recorded a single-day rise of 18,454 fresh cases of Covid-19 that pushed the total tally to 3,41,27,450, while the number of active infections rose to 1,78,831, according to Health Ministry data updated today.

The death toll from the pandemic climbed to 4,52,811 with 160 new fatalities, showed the data.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 27 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 116 consecutive days now.

Also, 12,47,506 tests were conducted yesterday, taking the cumulative number of tests conducted so far for detection of Covid-19 in the country to 59,57,42,218.