India vaccinated a total of 1,77,11,287 beneficiaries against Covid-19 till Thursday evening, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a release. Of these, 10,93,954 vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Thursday.

“A total of 1,77,11,287 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7 pm today,” the ministry statement read. “These include 68,38,077 HCWs [healthcare workers] who have taken the 1st dose and 30,82,942 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 60,22,136 FLWs [frontline workers] (1st dose), 54,177 FLWs (2nd dose), 14,95,016 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 2,18,939 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.”

Of the overall number of vaccinations administered on Thursday, 8,34,141 beneficiaries were inoculated with the first dose and 2,59,813 frontline workers received their second shot. This data was based on the provisional report, the ministry said, adding that the final reports would be completed for the day by late on Thursday.

India commenced the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines on January 16, with a target of inoculating 30 crore people by July. Thursday was the 48th day of the vaccination programme. The country is using the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is produced by the Serum Institute, and a government-backed vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

On February 24, the Centre had said that vaccines will be given to citizens who are above the age of 60 and those above 45 deemed at high-risk because of pre-existing medical conditions, from March 1.

Meanwhile, India on Thursday reported 17,407 new coronavirus cases, pushing the country’s tally to 1,11,56,923, Union health ministry data showed. The toll jumped by 89 to 1,57,435. The count of active cases stood at 1,73,413, while the number of recoveries reached 1,08,26,075. The active case rate was 1.53%, while the recovery rate stood at 97.06%. The fatality rate was at 1.41%.

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Coronavirus: India reports 17,407 new cases, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 10,000 infections