India hits a vaccination milestone, giving at least one shot to more than half of its eligible population.

India has given at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot to more than half of the eligible population, a milestone in a country that initially struggled to roll out enough doses for its 1.4 billion people. The country’s health ministry said it was ramping up its vaccination drive and working with regional governments to accelerate the pace of inoculation as they race to stave off another wave of infections. India is still recording about 33,000 cases a day. With more than 32 million total Covid-19 cases, the country is second only to the United States in terms of number of cases and the third to record more than 400,000 total deaths. Scientists widely believe the official figures vastly undercount the toll. So far, the country has fully vaccinated around 15 percent of the eligible population since the beginning of the drive in January. Health officials said they have given more than 610 million doses of three approved vaccines. India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive broke a new record on Friday. More than 10 million doses of the vaccine were administered in a single day across the country for the first time since the start of the mass inoculation programme on January 16, according to data on the Union health ministry’s Co-WIN dashboard. Buoyed by Friday’s record numbers, the country’s pace of vaccination, which has been patchy so far, has settled into high gear. In the past week, an average of 6.9 million doses has been administered across the country every day – the highest pace ever recorded in the country, according to HT’s dashboard. Friday’s single-day inoculation record comes just a day after India touched another crucial milestone – the country covered half of its adult population with at least one shot of the vaccine on Thursday.