The number of doses administered under India’s national COVID-19 vaccination program hit the 2 billion mark on Sunday as booster doses became available to all adults as daily cases hit a record high in the past four months, according to official figures. Reuters, adopted by Agerpres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the milestone as the world’s largest and longest vaccination campaign, which began last year. “India is making history again!”, Modi wrote in a message sent on Twitter.
The prime minister has faced accusations from the opposition that he mishandled the pandemic, which experts say has killed millions of people. The government denies the allegations.
According to India’s Ministry of Health, the number of deaths related to COVID-19 stands at 525,709, with 49 deaths recorded overnight.
The number of new cases rose by 20,528 in the past 24 hours, the highest since February 20, according to data compiled by Reuters.
The country of 1.35 billion people has lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions and international travel has recovered significantly.
About 80% of the administered doses were a domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccine called Covishield. Other vaccines used domestically sourced Covaxin and Corbevax and Sputnik V from Russia.
Source: Hot News RU
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