new phase

India, June 22: India administered a record more than 80 lakh vaccine doses on Day 1 of the Centre’s new phase of COVID-19 vaccination. The revised guideline says that vaccines will be free of charge to all above 18. According to a release, 80,95,314 doses were administered on the day.

The health ministry reported 53,256 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the lowest in 88 days, while 1,422 fatalities were also recorded in the previous 24 hours. The cumulative tally now stands at 2,99,35,221, which includes 3,88,135 deaths. The active caseload stands at 7,02,887, according to yesterday morning’s update.

 

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Today’s record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight COVID-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India.”

 

With this, it is a new record for the highest Covid vaccines administered in a single day. The previous high was of over 48 lakh doses on April 1.

As per the new phase of vaccination, the Centre will procure 75 per cent of vaccines from the manufacturers, leaving the rest 25 per cent to the private players. The Centre will also provide vaccines for all age groups to the states based on their requirement.

Earlier, the Centre used to supply free vaccines to only people aged 45 and above. It was the responsibility of state governments to procure and administer 50 per cent of the vaccines for citizens between the ages of 18 to 45.

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In a statement, the government said that during the month of May, more than 7.9 crore vaccines were available for the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination exercise. These were ramped up to 11.78 crore in June. These include the free supply of vaccines to states and UTs from the Centre, those directly procured by the states and those directly procured by the private hospitals.