According to the health ministry, nearly 81 lakh vaccine doses had been administered till Monday evening

A record 80 lakh-plus Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered across the country on Monday, the first day of the central government's revised free vaccination program.

This is the highest single-day figure since India launched its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 this year.

Madhya Pradesh topped the list of states with 15,42,632 vaccine doses, slowed by Karnataka with 1067734 vaccinations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had announced the revised policy earlier this month, lauded the achievement on Twitter.

"Today’s record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight COVID-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the front-line warriors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!" Prime Minister Modi said.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, nearly 81 lakh (80,95,314) doses had been administered till Monday evening.

Announcing a centralised vaccination drive during an address to the nation on June 7, PM Modi had said that all Covid-19 vaccine doses will be procured by the central government and given to the states for free.

With this, 25% of vaccination procurement work which was being done by the states will also be handled by the center, which was already purchasing and allocating 50% of the vaccines manufactured in the country to states free of charge.

Private hospitals will continue to buy the remaining 25 per cent and inoculate those willing to pay for their jabs. They can't, however, charge more than Rs 150 as a service charge per dose over the fixed price of the vaccine.

The health ministry maintained that the Union Government was committed to accelerating the pace and expanding scope of the nationwide COVID19 vaccination drive.

"The vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to States and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain," the ministry said.

Providing details about vaccine availability, the ministry said that during May, more than 7.9 crore vaccines were available for the nationwide Covid-19 Vaccination exercise. The number was ramped up to 11.78 crore in June 2021.

These include the free supply of vaccines to States and UTs from Government of India, those directly procured by the States/UTs and those directly procured by the private hospitals.

States were provided advance visibility of the vaccine doses available to them in the month of June 2021 by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

This advance information enabled the States to prepare vaccine distribution plans district-wise and COVID Vaccination Centre (CVC) wise in an effective manner. This facilitated a massive ramping up of the vaccine administration across the country.