New Delhi, Jun 4 (PTI) The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 194 crore on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.

More than 10 lakh vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Saturday, it said. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night.

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A total of 1,04,295 precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered to those aged 18-59 years till 7 pm on Saturday, taking the total number of precaution doses given in this age-group to 26,28,276 so far, according to the health ministry data.

So far, 3.44 crore children in the age group of 12-14 years and 5.96 crore adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years have been administered the first dose of the vaccine.

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The countrywide COVID-19 vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

Vaccination for all those aged more than 45 years began on April 1 last year. The government then decided to expand the ambit of the vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years to be inoculated against Covid from May 1 last year.

Inoculation of adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years commenced on January 3.

India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with co-morbidities from January 10.

The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16 and also removed the co-morbidity clause, making all people aged above 60 eligible for the precaution dose of Covid vaccines.

India on April 10 began administering precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccines to all aged above 18 years.

(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)