American billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates on Saturday congratulated India for reaching a “tremendous milestone” of administering 10 million vaccine doses against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday, thus recording the highest single-day vaccine coverage so far. This, Gates said, was the result of the collective efforts of the government, the research and development (R&D) community, vaccine manufacturers, and all the health workers who made this feat possible.

“Congratulations, India, on reaching this tremendous milestone,” Gates wrote in a tweet as he shared a news article on vaccine coverage. “The collective efforts of the government, R&D community, vaccine manufacturers, and millions of health workers have made this feat possible.” Gates also tagged the Twitter handles of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union ministry of health and family welfare which, in turn, retweeted his post.

A total of 10,064,376 doses were administered in India on Friday, bettering the previous high of 8.82 million doses set on August 16. About 6.9 million vaccine doses were administered on average across the country every day for the past week, the highest pace of the inoculation drive ever recorded in the country since the start of the mass programme on January 16.

Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), was also among those who praised India for administering more than 10 million Covid-19 vaccines a day, amid fears of another surge in infections. “Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved,” she said in a tweet. “Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!”

PM Modi called the record vaccination milestone a “momentous feat” for the country. Applauding those getting vaccinated as well as those making the nationwide vaccination drive a success, the Prime Minister said crossed 10 million vaccine doses is a new record for the country.

sourced  —  HT