Kolkata, Sep 18 (PTI) West Bengal on Saturday touched the milestone of vaccinating over 5 crore people in the state against COVID-19 with at least one dose, after 12.17 lakh more beneficiaries were jabbed, a senior health department official said.

He is also hopeful that the state will cross the 13-lakh mark of single-day inoculation soon.

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“Till 6pm today, we vaccinated around 12.17 lakh people. Since January 16, we have inoculated 5,01,02,442 people,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 toll climbed to 18,641 in the state on Saturday with 12 more fatalities, officials said.

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The coronavirus tally also rose to 15,61,014 after 728 fresh cases were reported, they said.

West Bengal now has 7,967 active cases, while 15,34,406 people have recovered from the disease thus far, including 757 in the last 24 hours.

Till date, a total of 1,76,99,502 samples have been tested in the state.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)