Union
Health ministry on Saturday reviewed the status and progress of nationwide COVID-19
vaccination drive initiated on January 16, ANI reports.

Discussing
the inoculation coverage
with the state health secretaries and the mission directors (MDs) of National
Health Mission of states and Union Territories (UTs) via video conferencing, union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India is fastest country to vaccinate
five million people in just 21 days.

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The health ministry also urged states and UTs to exponentially increase the pace of vaccination. 

Giving
an account of the COVID-19 vaccine coverage in India,  additional secretary
of health Manohar Agnani articulated that 56, 36,868 have been inoculated till
date against the coronavirus infection, 54.7% of which are healthcare workers.

“As of February 6 at 6 pm, the total vaccination is 56,36,868, out of which 52,66,175 are healthcare workers,” he added.

As far as the other frontline workers are concerned, a
total of 3,70,693 frontline workers have been vaccinated since February 3, the health ministry data suggested.

Meanwhile,
all the states and UTs have been asked by the health ministry to get all the healthcare staff
vaccinated at least once before February 20 and schedule mop up rounds
immediately after.

Also Read: Third phase of vaccination in India likely in March, says Union Health Minister

The health ministry also announced that beneficiaries of inaugural vaccination will start getting second dose of COVID-19 vaccine from February 13.