New Delhi: Over 97 percent of India's adult population has so far been administered with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while around 82 percent have been given the second dose, the Health Minister said on Thursday.
"More than 97 percent of the adult population received the first dose of the vaccine. Rapidly marching towards achieving 100 percent first dose mark," tweeted Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
India's COVID vaccination coverage has crossed 178.26 crore with more than 21 lakh vaccine doses administered till 7 p.m. on Thursday, said the ministry.
Over 2.03 crore precaution doses for the identified categories of beneficiaries have also been administered.
Meanwhile, in a press briefing, Lav Agarwal, Health Ministry's Joint Secretary, said: "The average weekly Covid positivity rate in India is 0.99 per cent. The number of active cases in the country is around 77,000. In the last 24 hours, only 6,561 cases are reported in India", adding that a sharp reduction of Covid-19 cases has been observed.
Kerala, Maharashtra, and Mizoram account for 50 percent of active cases of the country.
Kerala has total 48,152 active cases, Maharashtra has 15,595 and Mizoram has 8,736 active cases. Remaining states have less than 5,000 active cases, said Agarwal.
Agarwal said that India is in a positive situation in number of deaths as compared to other countries. From Feb 2-8, India reported 615 deaths on an average. In the last week, 144 deaths were reported due to COVID.
IANS
