India administered at least 715 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by Wednesday, September 8, according to government data.

By 7pm on Wednesday, 715,254,153 vaccine doses were given across states and union territories. This includes beneficiaries who, since the commencement of the nationwide drive, have received both doses, and the corresponding number of those who have been vaccinated with their first dose. As many as 7,380,510 doses were administered on the day. Of this, 5,042,806 beneficiaries were vaccinated with the first dose and 2,337,704 beneficiaries received the second dose of vaccine.

In the 18-45 age group, 366,3276 were given the first dose while 1,245,991 doses were given as the second dose on the day. Cumulatively, 285,704,140 persons in this age group across the country received their first dose and 38,599,523 have received their second dose since the start of the vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, phase 2/3 trials of Bharat Biotech International Limited’s nasal vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are likely to begin “within a couple of weeks” at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, according to news agency ANI. The Hyderabad company received regulatory approvals to conduct the second and third phase trials of the intranasal vaccine, BBV154, in August.

BBV154 is the first of its kind Covid-19 jab to undergo human trials in the country. Phase 1 of the exercise was conducted on health groups volunteers in the age group of 18-60 and was “well tolerated,” the ministry of science and technology had said earlier. The vaccine has been developed with support from the department of biotechnology (DBT) and Biotechnology Industry Research Associate Council. BBV154 is the first intranasal jab in the country to reach late-stage trials, according to Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, DBT.

Bharat Biotech has also developed India’s first home-made anti-Covid shot, Covaxin, which, along with Covishield, is the most-widely used vaccine in the nationwide inoculation drive, which began on January 16.

India recorded nearly 6,000 fresh Covid-19 cases as 43,263 people tested positive, taking the cumulative nationwide infection tally to 33,139,981, the union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) dashboard showed on Thursday. This marks a rise of 14% from 37,875 cases that were reported on Wednesday.