Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the vaccination milestone, celebrating the world’s largest and longest-running vaccination campaign that began last year.
Health Ministry data shows that the death toll in Covid is 525,709, with 49 deaths recorded overnight.
The number of new cases increased by 20,528 in the past 24 hours, the highest since February 20, according to data compiled by Reuters.
The country of 1.35 billion people has lifted most of its Covid-related restrictions and international travel has rebounded strongly.
About 80% of immunizations are the domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccine, called Covishield. Others include domestically developed Covaxin and Corbevax, and Russia’s Sputnik V.
The federal government is speeding up an intensifying campaign to prevent the spread of the infection, which is rising higher in the eastern states of Assam, West Bengal and Karnataka in the south.
