India crosses one billion vaccination milestone, PM Modi says 'triumph of Indian science'

The country, which has suffered greatly due to the COVID-19 first and second waves, has more than 100 crore people, aged 18 or more, who are administered with at least a single dose of anti-Coronavirus vaccine.

About 30 percent of the adults in the country of 1.3 billion people have received both the doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccine.

Lauding the effort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "India scripts history. We are witnessing the triumph of Indian science, enterprise and collective spirit of 130 crore Indians. Congrats India on crossing 100 crore vaccinations. Gratitude to our doctors, nurses and all those who worked to achieve this feat."

The South Asian country is currently administering three different types of vaccines, the Indian version of Oxford vaccine, Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Russia's Sputnik V.

Meanwhile, the country has added 18,454 new COVID-19 cases  while the toll went up by 160 Thursday.

In the same span of time, 17,561 COVID-19 patients have recovered taking the recovery percentage to 98.15%, which is the highest since Mar 2020.

The active cases now account for less than 1 percent of the total cases.