New Delhi: India has become the first country in the world to reach the 5 million COVID-19 vaccination mark in just 21 days, the Union Health Ministry said as nearly 53 lakh beneficiaries have been administered shots under the countrywide inoculation exercise till Friday evening.
The USA, the UK and Israel have reached 5 million vaccinations in 24, 43 and 45 simultaneous days respectively.
"The countrywide COVID-19 vaccination program was conducted successfully on the twenty-first day as well," the ministry said.
The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID-19 is nearly 53 lakhs.
A total of 52,90,474 beneficiaries were vaccinated through 1,04,781 sessions, as per the provisional report comprising data collected till Friday 6 pm.
India's COVID-19 tally of cases rose to 1,08,02,591 with 12,408 new infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries surged to 1,04,96,308, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
The death count increased to 1,54,823 with 120 daily new fatalities, the data showed.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to recuperated pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.16 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent. The total COVID-19 active cases remained below 2 lakh.