Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that as many as 65 percent eligible beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group have received their first shot of a COVID-19 jab. This comes a month after India began vaccinating its teenagers against COVID-19.

“Young India’s historic effort continues. In just one month, 65 percent of teenagers have been administered their first dose. Under the leadership of Prime Minister @NarendraModi, the world’s largest inoculation drive is creating new records,” Mandaviya’s tweet, translated roughly from Hindi, read.

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Since January 3, when the nationwide vaccination drive opened for the 15-18 age group, the number of teenagers inoculated with the first dose stands at nearly 50 million, while the number of those fully vaccinated (both doses) is at close to 3.5 million, data published by the Union health ministry shows.

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Presently, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is the only jab being used for the said age group. ZyCoV-D, developed by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, was the first vaccine to be cleared for those below 18 years (aged 12 and above), after it received emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in August last year.

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Meanwhile, India added 1,49,394 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total virus tally to 4,19,52,712, while the active cases further declined to 14,35,569, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

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The death toll climbed to 5,00,055 with 1,072 fresh fatalities, the data  updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 3.42 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate improved to 95.39 per cent, the ministry said.

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A reduction of 98,352 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.