Over 68 crore Covid vaccine doses administered in India so far: Centre

The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 68 crore with more than 62.25 lakh jabs administered Saturday, the health ministry said.

The daily tally is expected to increase further as the 7 pm provisional report gets updated with the compilation of the final numbers for the day by late night, the ministry said.

Cumulatively, 26,99,02,315 first doses have been administered to individuals in the 18-44 age group across states and union territories and 3,35,98,191 second doses in the same age group since the start of phase-3 of the vaccination drive on May 1, according to the data.

The ministry further said that cumulatively 52,38,12,268 first doses have been administered while 15,99,16,790 second doses have been given.

On Saturday, 62,25,922 doses were administered, pushing the overall coverage to 68 crore (68, 37, 29,058), the ministry said.

The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from Covid-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, the ministry underlined.