69% of India’s adult population has got at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 25% both: Government

Around 69% of the country's adult population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 25% 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% doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered in vaccination centres in rural areas and 35% in urban areas.

A total of 67.4 lakh doses (approximately 0.88%) have been administered at vaccination centres not tagged as rural or urban, it said.

It said that 59.66% 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 5% to 10% and 30 districts are reporting over 10% 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 on its pricing, it said.