NEW DELHI, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- India achieved a major milestone of administering 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines doses, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday.

Around 21 percent of the targeted population aged above 18 years old have been fully vaccinated so far.

According to the minister, the total pandemic vaccine doses administered so far stands at 1,000,000,153 as a total of 1,466,707 doses were administered on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the country's COVID-19 tally rose to 34,127,450 on Thursday, as 18,454 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry's latest data.

Besides, 160 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Wednesday morning, taking the total death toll to 452,811.

There are still 178,831 active COVID-19 cases in the country with a rise of 733 during the past 24 hours.

A total of 33,495,808 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals so far, out of which 17,561 were discharged during the past 24 hours.