KOLKATA - India has crossed the 10 million mark in administering Covid-19 vaccine doses.

The government said this was achieved on Friday evening (Feb 19), adding it is the second fastest in the world to get to that number.

In a tweet on Feb 19, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said India had taken 34 days to get to this mark, while claiming the United States took 31 days to do so.

The milestone comes amid growing calls for India to ramp up vaccination, including from private players who are seeking a greater role in the drive, as the number of daily new cases shows a renewed surge in some states.

India began its Covid-19 vaccination programme on Jan 16 and aims to vaccinate around 300 million people in the priority groups, including the elderly, by July to August.

With 10,715,204 vaccine doses given as at 8am on Saturday, India is currently ranked third according to total doses administered, with the US in first position and the United Kingdom in second. According to the ministry's tweet on Friday, the US had administered 56.28 million doses and the UK, 16.5 million.

It is expected to open up vaccinations for citizens above 50 in the next two to three weeks. Eligible beneficiaries will be able to register themselves on the CO-Win 2.0 app that has been designed to drive the Covid-19 immunisation programme.