Centre says 69 percent of India's adult population has received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine; 25 pc given both doses

New Delhi: Sixty-nine percent of the country’s adult population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 25 percent has taken both doses, the government said on Thursday. It also said that increased population density raises chances of COVID-19 spread and it will be prudent to avoid non-essential travel and observe festivity at low key. The government said that 64.1 per cent doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered in vaccination centres in rural areas and 35 percent in urban areas. A total of 67.4 lakh doses (approximately 0.88 pc) have been administered at vaccination centres not tagged as rural/urban, it said. It said that 59.66 percent of the total COVID-19 cases last week were reported from Kerala and the state has over one lakh active cases. The government also stressed that the number of COVID-19 tests has not reduced and 15 to 16 lakh tests are being done every day in the country. Eighteen districts are reporting weekly Covid positivity rate between five to ten per cent and 30 districts are reporting over 10 per cent weekly positivity rate, it said. On the Zydus Cadila’s COVID-19 vaccine, the government said that ZyCoV-D is a three-dose needle-free vaccine and it will be priced differently than jabs being used currently. Talks are being held with the manufacturer o n its pricing, it said.