India has administered 60 crore vaccine doses so far, announced Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Taking to his Twitter, Mandaviya said, “Under PM Narendra Modi ‘Sabko Vaccine Muft Vaccine’ initiative, India crossed the 60 crore vaccination mark. Congratulations everyone!”

The minister said that India took 85 days to touch the figure of 10 crore, then took 45 days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore.

The country took 24 days to reach 40 crore from 30 crore and then 20 more days to cross 50 crore vaccinations on August 6. It took 19 more days to go past the 60-crore mark, Mandaviya added.

The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase while the vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started on February 2.

The next phase started from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with co-morbidities.

On April 1, India opened vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years and then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1.

Meanwhile, Mandaviya also informed that all states will be provided with over 2 crore additional COVID-19 vaccine doses in August.

“Besides the scheme of providing vaccines to every state this month, over 2 crore additional doses of vaccine are being made available. We have requested all the states to try to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day, which is celebrated on 5th September,” Mandaviya tweeted.

According to the health ministry, more than 58.07 crore Covid vaccine doses have been provided to states and union territories so far.

Meanwhile, India reported 37,593 new cases of COVID-19 and 648 fatalities in the last 24 hours and as per the Union Health Ministry, Kerala recorded 24,296 COVID-19 positive cases.