India injected over 18cr COVID vaccine doses so far: Centre

new Delhi: The Ministry of Health and Family welfare has claimed that the cumulative number of coronavirus vaccine doses administration has crossed 18 crores in the country.

According to the Ministry's statement, over 18,04,29,261 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered in the country's all eligible categories.

A total of 3,25,071 beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years received their first dose of COVID vaccine today and cumulatively 42,55,362 across 32 States/UTs have been administered since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive, the statement said.

"The total of 18,04,29,261 include 96,27,199 Healthcare Workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 66,21,675 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 1,43,63,754 Frontline Workers (FLWs) (1st dose), 81,48,757 FLWs (2nd dose), and 42,55,362 for 18-44 years of age group (1st dose). 5,67,99,389 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (1st Dose), 87,50,224 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (2nd dose), 5,43,15,317 for above 60 years (1st Dose) and 1,75,47,584 for above 60 years (2nd Dose)," the statement read.

"As on day-119 of the vaccination drive, a total of 10,79,759 vaccine doses were given. 6,16,781 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 4,62,978 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report till 8 P.M. Final reports would be completed for the day by late tonight," it added.

Meanwhile, World health experts issued a grim warning on Friday that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly", as Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped, AFP reported.

"We're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," said the World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.