The US took 111 days while China required 116 days to reach a similar vaccination milestone

The cumulative number of COVID19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 16 crore (160 million) as Phase-3 of the nationwide vaccination drive expands further.

India has become the fastest country to reach this mark, taking only 109 days to achieve this milestone, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The US took 111 days while China required 116 days to reach this figure.

Meanwhile, according to health ministry data, in the age group 18-44 years, 6,71,285 beneficiaries have received their first dose of COVID vaccine across 12 states.

These states are Chhattisgarh (1,026), Delhi (82,000), Gujarat (1,61,625), Jammu and Kashmir (10,885), Haryana (99,680), Karnataka (3,840), Maharashtra (1,11,621), Odisha (13,768), Punjab (908), Rajasthan (1,30,071), Tamil Nadu (4,577) and Uttar Pradesh (51,284).

More than 14 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours on Tuesday, Day-109 of the vaccination drive.

Cumulatively, 16,04,94,188 vaccine doses have been administered through 23,66,349 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am on Wednesday.

These include 94,62,505 Healthcare Workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 63,22,055 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 1,35,65,728 Frontline Workers FLWs (1st dose), 73,32,999 FLWs (2nd dose).

The figure also includes 6,71,285 beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group (1st dose), 5,29,50,584 1st dose beneficiaries and 1,23,85,466 2nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 5,33,94,353 (1st dose) and 44,09,213 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years.

According to health ministry data, 10 states account for 66.86% of the cumulative doses given so far in the country. Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat head this list.